Iran breidt controle over Hezbollah uit

 

Iran heeft haar controle over Hezbollah sinds de Tweede Libanon Oorlog verder vergroot, en Hezbollah heeft voor alle belangrijke beslissingen de toestemming van Teheran nodig. Aangezien Hezbollah met haar gealliëerden vetorecht hebben in de Libanese regering, betekent dit dat Libanons onafhankelijkheid niet alleen door Syrië, maar vooral ook door Iran wordt ingeperkt.

 

RP

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Iran solidifies control over Hizbullah

Sep. 8, 2008
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST

 

 

Iran is consolidating its grip on Hizbullah and has instituted a number of structural changes to the Lebanese group, under which Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah no longer enjoys exclusive command over its military wing, top Israeli defense officials have revealed.

 

According to the officials, following the Second Lebanon War, Iran decided to step up its involvement in the Hizbullah decision-making process and has instituted a number of changes to the terror group's hierarchy, under which Nasrallah has to receive Iranian permission prior to certain operations.

 

"There is real Iranian command now over Hizbullah," a top IDF officer said. "This doesn't mean that Nasrallah is a puppet, but it does mean that whenever he pops his head out of his bunker he sees an Iranian official standing over him."

 

Reports of Iranian discontent with Nasrallah had begun to surface following the 2006 war, which Teheran reportedly was not interested in at the time. Several reports in the Arab press claimed that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had ousted Nasrallah from his post as Hizbullah secretary-general and replaced him with Naim Qassem, Hizbullah's second in command. Iran has denied the reports.

 

"Iranian supervision grew tremendously following the war," the top officer explained. "Nasrallah is still in a decision-making position but Iran's influence has dramatically increased."

 

A report in a Syrian opposition paper claimed Sunday that a high-level delegation of Iranian Revolutionary Guards visited Beirut last week to coordinate the integration of some Hizbullah branches into the Guards' Al-Quds Force, which is in charge of Iran's terror activities in Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere.

 

According to the Reform Party of Syria, parts of the Hizbullah operation structure will now be under the command of Brig.-Gen. Faramaz Ghasem Suleimani, commander of the Al-Quds Force. Suleimani is listed by the US as a terrorist and the Guards was declared a terror group in 2007.

 

The paper claimed that Iran's ultimate plan was to dilute Syrian influence over Hizbullah in case Damascus strikes a peace deal with Israel.

 

Iran's solidification of its control over Hizbullah is seen as an attempt to direct its military forces in the event of a conflict in the Middle East. If Iran is attacked by the US or Israel, it may now be able to order Hizbullah to retaliate on its behalf.

 

In the past, IDF Military Intelligence has speculated about what Nasrallah would do in such a situation, raising the possibility that Hizbullah would not immediately attack Israel if Iran was attacked.

 

In another development, Hizbullah's Al-Manar satellite television station has begun using an Indonesian satellite to broadcast across Asia and Australia. Hizbullah asked Indonesia for permission to use the satellite after Thailand kicked Al-Manar TV broadcasts off its satellite in January.

 

Israel expressed its disappointment with Indonesia's decision, since Al-Manar is full of anti-Israel and anti-US propaganda.

 

Indonesia's decision to allow the Al-Manar hookup undermines US and European efforts to limit the reach of Hizbullah's broadcasts, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center said.

Arabische vertaling van Amos Oz "Een verhaal van liefde en duisternis"

 

Een culturele boycot van Israël, zoals veel Palestijnse, Arabische en 'progressieve' Westerse organisaties bepleiten dient niet de vrede maar het voortduren van het conflict. Cultuur is een belangrijk middel om nader tot elkaar te komen en de dialoog te voeren. Veel Joods-Arabische samenwerking en dialoog loopt dan ook via gezamelijke theater- en muziek projekten, van Peace Child Israel tot en met een opvoering van een toneelstuk over Anne Frank in het Arabisch. Boekvertalingen horen daar ook bij.

 

 

Wouter

______________

Last update - 08:18 08/09/2008    
Arab terror victim's family funds Arabic translation of Oz novel

 

By Shiri Lev-Ari
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1018892.html

 

 

Amos Oz's autobiographical novel, "A Tale of Love and Darkness," has been translated into Arabic thanks to a contribution by the family of an Arab man killed in a terror attack in 2004.

 

George Khoury, an Israeli Arab student, was doing his evening run in Jerusalem's French Hill neighborhood when a terrorist, who took him for a Jew, shot and killed him. The Khoury family, also from Jerusalem, decided to contribute funding to translate Oz's book, in an effort to help the cause of coexistence.

 

Two other books of Oz's have been translated into Arabic. "My Michael," translated in the 1990s, received favorable reviews in Egypt. The other book, "Soumchi" was distributed in Jordan.
 
Oz's "Tale of Love and Darkness," published in Hebrew by Keter, was translated by Jamal Gnaim and is being published by Yedioth Books, which also published the book's Russian translation.

 

The translation was assisted by the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature. It is to be sold in the Israeli Arab sector and later in Egypt and other Arab countries as well.

 

A difficult translation

 

"As could be expected, it was difficult to translate the book into Arabic," said Gnaim, who was born in 1943 and is a native of the central Israeli Arab city of Baka al-Garbiyeh. "Its language is not easy and the world the author lives in is not so familiar to me. But somehow I tried to get into his head and I hope I did a good job," he added.

 

The novel presents the full Jewish-Zionist narrative.

 

"The subject is not foreign to me. I live in Israel and I know the Hebrew, Israeli and Zionist culture, and therefore I was not surprised. I read the book and loved it. I realized my task wasn't easy, but I tried to be true to the source - that is sacred to me."

 

Gnaim, who has a bachelor's degree in Hebrew language and Arabic language and literature from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, was an educator for many years. He retired 12 years ago and studied and taught translation at Beit Berl College.

 

Gnaim said "A Tale of Love and Darkness" represents "Oz from the point of view of his language and associations, and Hebrew literature and Zionist thought, and it's important that others get to know this milieu."

 

 

Reagan en Begin in 1981

 

Reagan en Begin: twee van de door links meest verguisde regeringsleiders van de 20ste eeuw.

 

__________________________

 

US-Israel: The Empty Alliance

Bygone Days: The strategic agreement that never was

Sep. 6, 2008
Yehuda Avner , THE JERUSALEM POST

 

US president Ronald Reagan had a craving for jelly beans. He started chewing them in the early 1960s when he gave up smoking. On entering the White House in 1981, he had crystal jars of jelly beans placed on his desk in the Oval Office, on the table in the cabinet room, in the suites of his guest house and on Air Force One, where a receptacle was fashioned to prevent spillage during turbulence. Guests at Ronald Reagan's inaugural balls consumed 40 million jelly beans, almost equaling the number of votes he received in the election, or so the tabloids blazed.

"I can hardly start a meeting or make a decision without first passing around a jar of jelly beans," Reagan quipped to prime minister Menachem Begin when they met for the first time in early September 1981. "You can tell a lot about a fella's character by whether he picks out all of one color, or just grabs a fistful. Here, take a few."

Begin grinned and obliged, scooping up a small handful. Having once been an ardent movie-goer, he could not resist a passing reference to the president's past acting career, to which Reagan laughed in a deep, jovial way, and joked, "You know, someone asked me how can an actor become a president, and I answered, how can a president not be an actor?" The jest had them both in a fit of laughter.

Without a doubt, the president's genial tone and infectious bonhomie were giving Begin a sense of uncommon ease, and when the Californian beseeched, "Please, call me Ron. And may I call you Menachem?" (He pronounced it Menakem.) Begin responded with the widest of smiles and with the falsest of modesty: "Oh, no, Mr. President; I'm a mere prime minister and you are the president of the mightiest power on earth. So by all means call me by my first name, but I cannot call you by yours."

"You sure can, Menakem. I insist," said the president.

"In that case, Ron, I shall," said the prime minister, elated.

THEY WERE sitting across from one another on cheery, floral-patterned settees in the Oval Office, with a view of the sunny rose garden through the tall windows, the presidential colors draped next to a prominent portrait of Thomas Jefferson and, elsewhere, mementos, plaques, signed photographs - all the bric-a-brac of a public man who had once been a middling film star and then a popular state governor. Begin could not be totally certain how much of his affability was Hollywood and how much was sincere, but having learned that the man had a genuine admiration for Israel, he allowed himself the euphoria of being cuddled in this big man's bighearted welcome.

It seemed to Begin that Reagan was deliberately seeking to break the ice in a demonstrative display of camaraderie, giving him a rare opportunity to open up his heart and to say what was on his mind in a free-wheeling tête-à-tête. Imagine, then, his astonishment, nay bewilderment, when hardly had he opened his mouth to talk about the burning issues of the day when Reagan interrupted him to say: "You must forgive me, Menakem, but we have only a quarter of an hour before we have to join the others in the cabinet room. So I would just like to make" - he slipped his hand into his pocket and extracted a pack of 3x5 cards - "a few points. The first is..."

Begin stared in disbelief as the American president began reciting in mechanical tones a series of typed "talking points" consisting largely of a standard reaffirmation of America's known positions on Israel and the Middle East. And when he paused, which he did twice, the premier assumed it was to allow him to engage. But it wasn't. It was simply Reagan making sure of his lines.

Was the president of the United States so uninformed that he needed to read by rote elementary issues from cue cards, like a third-rate actor? So Begin sat and listened. Never before had he deliberated with a world leader - the world leader - who was such an abysmal interlocutor.

Reagan was destined to enter history as a brilliant public communicator, the man who reinvigorated the American people after the lackluster years of Jimmy Carter, who restored his country's prosperity and who initiated what pundits described as a pie-in-the-sky "Star Wars" enterprise but which, ultimately, brought the communist empire to its knees. Little of this, however, was evident at that first encounter, which ended with the president repocketing his talking points and saying, "And that, Menakem, is how America sees things," to which Begin responded with a gracious, "I thank you, Ron, for that comprehensive review."

"Now let's join the people in the cabinet room," said the president, and he led the way into the adjacent chamber, with its Colonial-style cream-paneled walls, immense brass chandelier, golden drapes and a grand oak conference table with high-backed leather chairs behind which senior advisers stood in respectful attendance.

Seating himself at the table's center, facing the prime minister, Reagan extracted another pack of cards, and in the practiced style of a late-night talk show host, suavely welcomed Begin and his entourage (which included defense minister Ariel Sharon), describing Israel as "a strategic asset," and inviting the premier to make any comments he wished.

Begin obliged, delving into a tour d'horizon, and ending with the cautiously chosen words: "You, Mr. President [he did not think it proper to call him by his first name in this setting], kindly referred to my country just now as a strategic asset to yours. While that, certainly, has a positive ring to it I find it, nevertheless, a little patronizing. Given the bipolar world in which we live - democracy versus communism - the cherished values we share and our confluence of interests on so many fundamental issues, might I suggest the time has come to publicly acknowledge that Israel is not just a strategic asset, but a strategic ally."

SOME AROUND the table looked at the premier in a faintly disconcerted manner. Caspar Weinberger, the secretary of defense, a rather diminutive man with sleek black hair and of vague Jewish origin, was actually frowning. But the president continued to give the premier his fullest attention, and he chuckled when Begin jocularly remarked: "You know, Mr. President, I sometimes get the impression that our relationship is a little like Heinrich Heine's famous couplet about the Berlin bourgeoisie gentleman who implores his mistress not to acknowledge him in public in that city's most fashionable boulevard, begging her: 'Greet me not Unter den Linden,' I fear there are some who would say much the same to us."

On all sides American faces seemed either bemused or irritated, but not the president's. He looked at the prime minister with respect, and chortled, "I'd be proud to acknowledge you in public anywhere, any time."

"Certainly, in this alliance," continued Begin, "Israel is very much the junior partner, but a partner we are. And I dare say" - a faint smile curled his lips and his voice sank into understatement - "over the decades Israel has done a thing or two which might have contributed to the American strategic interest in our region. And much as we deeply appreciate the military and economic aid we receive, I venture to suggest it is not an entirely one-way street - not a charity, so to speak."

There, he had said it; he had spelled it out. No other Israeli premier had quite put it that way before - that Israel was not merely a receiver but also a giver. And as he spoke he noted that Reagan was nodding in agreement. The president looked to his right and to his left, invited discussion, but since most everyone seemed taciturn Begin seized the moment and said: "Might I suggest, Mr. President, that consideration be given to an agreed document on this matter - on the strategic relationship between our two countries."

Weinberger's cold gray eyes glared back at him, and he grunted some sort of reservation, but secretary of state Alexander Haig seemed eminently amenable.

"What the prime minister proposes sounds like a good idea to me," said the president. "Let's look into it."

Menachem Begin sat up abruptly; energy coursed through him. He had been waiting for this moment for a long time, the moment when the United States of America would grant the State of Israel the status of a full-fledged strategic ally. So, with alacrity he said, "With your permission, Mr. President, may I call on defense minister Sharon to share with you and your colleagues a number of ideas which might give expression to this concept?"

"By all means," said Reagan. "Go ahead."

Sharon, known as "the Bulldozer" because of his girth, his autocratic style, his military daring and his craggy features, stood up, and with a set of maps proceeded to give an elaborate presentation of the ways Israel and America might cooperate strategically. Weinberger reddened at Sharon's swashbuckling audaciousness. Others on the American side exchanged uneasy glances. But Sharon plowed on imperviously, proposing what was tantamount to a wide-ranging mutual defense treaty. Begin, sensing the growing uneasiness, suggested the president authorize the two defense ministers to confer with the intent of finding a mutually acceptable formula.

"Good idea," said Haig.

"Why don't you two fellas get together and see if you can work something out in this area?" said Reagan.

Weinberger seemed dumbfounded. One could see he was seething - stuck with a presidential request to deliberate with a man he could not abide about an agreement to which he was totally opposed.

On the morrow, Weinberger summoned his chief aides to his Pentagon conference room and told them, "I want no publicity about this. The Israelis are going to do just the opposite. They'll want lots of publicity, and they'll want a binding document with lots of detail. We're not going to subscribe to that at all. Whatever we'll sign will be so general and so empty of content that we'll be able to defend it in the Arab world. And I want the negotiations to be held right here in Washington. I intend to control them myself." And control them he did.

THE TALKS began with the Israeli Defense Ministry presenting the Pentagon negotiators with a 29-page booklet containing a sweeping list of military cooperation proposals. This spawned a plethora of acrimonious negotiations which, in the words of one American participant, "was like being in a washing machine where sometimes things went very smoothly and the water was warm. Then suddenly cold water would come out of nowhere and you'd be turned the other way and get hit across the head with some unexpected action. It was a funny time: On one hand, things were done at the president's behest, but then undone by his secretary of defense."

At one point Sharon so lost his temper that he began shouting and banging on the table, at which Weinberger coolly remarked to an aide," Do you suppose minister Sharon has taken a dislike to that table?" Soon enough, Sharon became so disenchanted he decided to wash his hands of the whole thing, but Begin insisted he persist. He wanted a symbol of the alliance, if not a formal treaty. What he got was a brief 700-word memorandum of understanding that contained little that was new or substantive.

It was signed in November 1981 without fanfare by Sharon and Weinberger at an informal dinner at the National Geographic Society in Washington. No press was invited, and the Pentagon did not even issue its customary briefing. In what was an extraordinarily calculated intent to play down the whole exercise, nowhere is there a photograph of the two defense ministers signing the agreement.

And that is how Caspar Weinberger got his way and Menachem Begin his document.

 

The writer was on the personal staff of five prime ministers, including Menachem Begin.

avner28atnetvision.net.il

De blokkade van Palestina

 

De clandestiene Joodse emigratie naar Palestina tijdens en na de Tweede Wereldoorlog - tegen het Britse verbod in - is een van de zaken die zelden de aandacht krijgt die ze verdient wanneer de geschiedenis van Israel/Palestina wordt beschreven. Na de oorlog werd vanuit de VS een grootscheepse immigratie georganiseerd door vrijwilligers om de Joden uit Europa aan een nieuwe toekomst te helpen en het heft in eigen hand te nemen. Dit laatste was een van de basale kenmerken van het zionisme.

 

In de woorden van iemand die op deze manier naar Israel is gekomen:

"We were proud to have Jewish sailors," said Shapira, 81. "We did not know such a thing even existed."

 

RP

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Breaking the Palestine Siege

JTA tells the story of the real rescue boats that broke a real Palestine siege in a really progressive cause, over 60 years ago. These were the sailors of  MACHAL who brought Jewish Holocaust survivors to "Palestine" in rickety boats like the Exodus.

 

 

Sailors who brought survivors to prestate Palestine share stories 
 
By Dina Kraft  Published: 09/07/2008 

 

TEL AVIV (JTA) -- One by one, until they numbered more than a thousand, they clambered up the bobbing rope and twine that God-fearing sailors centuries ago dubbed Jacob's Ladder.

 

It was Italy, May 1947. A bottomless sea lay below, a dark night sky above. The Jewish refugees finally were leaving Europe and the ashes of the Holocaust. They only had the bags on their backs and the will to climb, rung by rung.

"Don't lose your footing! Don't get blown off!"

 

They climbed higher and higher.

Out of the darkness came pairs of hands and shouts of "Kumarof!" -- "Come on!" in Yiddish. Jewish sailors from America – "Imagine, Jewish sailors from America!" the refugees marveled -- were reaching down and pulling them up over the sides of a ship called Hope, "Hatikvah."

"It was like a miracle," said Irit Avriel, one of those refugees, her face lighting up with the memory six decades later. "For us they were not just sailors; they were angels."

More than 32,000 Jewish refugees from Europe, just over half of the total 60,000 who came to prestate Palestine, were brought over by North American sailors -- most of them young Jewish men who served at sea during World War II.

They were part of a clandestine operation known as Aliyah Bet, which included the famed Exodus ship.

At a gathering last year for passengers of Hatikvah hosted by one of those Jewish sailors, the young people who had climbed the rope ladder to freedom so many years ago were full of questions for the two former sailors who came to share their stories.

 

"How were you recruited? Why did you leave America to do this? When did you know about the camps?" they asked.

The Jewish ex-sailors spoke about their own European relatives and the obligation they felt to help after the Holocaust.

A new documentary film about North American Jewish sailors from the Aliyah Bet operation, "Waves of Freedom," which was shown at the Jerusalem Film Festival this summer, is scheduled to come soon to Jewish film festivals in the United States.

In late 1946, word had gone out in the streets of U.S. cities such as New York and Chicago that young Jewish men with sailing experience were needed to help smuggle Holocaust survivors across the Mediterranean to Palestine. The mission was to be top secret because the British had declared such immigration illegal and created a blockade to stop the effort.

Murray Greenfield -- "Greeny," as the survivors would quickly nickname him -- had just been discharged from three years in the U.S. Merchant Marines. Others had finished tours of duty in the Navy fighting in Europe or against the Japanese in the Pacific.

 

"What an idea," Greenfield, 82, a native of Long Island, N.Y., said he remembered thinking. "I was just discharged and here they were looking for guys who knew how to sail."

 

Greenfield, who hosted the reunion in Israel last year, went on to co-author a book on the subject titled "The Jews' Secret Fleet." He told his mother that he would not be going to college as planned that fall, but was going to do something for the Jewish people.

 

It was a secret; he could not say where he was going or for how long. The news of the Nazi genocide was still fresh -- horrible reports of death camps and gassings. Greenfield's mother stroked the arm of her son and gave her blessing.

Harold Katz, a former U.S. Navy officer who spent three years in the Pacific, also decided to join the effort. A first-year student at Harvard Law School at the time, he was so enthusiastic about the journey that he managed to convince a classmate who was Irish Catholic to join him.

 

Katz went on to become an established trial lawyer in Boston, but the memories of the Hatikvah and his part in history eventually brought him back to Israel as an immigrant in the early 1970s.

 

"You don't always know what will be a turning point in your life. You realize it only later on," said Katz, 86. "When you do, you see how it fits in with the rest of your life. This was a watershed, a transformative experience."

Katz and Greenfield would sail on a hulking and aging Canadian ice-breaker, one of 10 ships a group of American Jews bought for the operation to bring Jewish refugees to Palestine from Europe.

 

The details of the operation were worked out through a thick cloud of cigarette smoke on the top floor of a building on East 60th Street in Manhattan, high above the din of music at the famous club below, the Copacabana.

A mix of businesspeople, Zionist activists and representatives of the Jewish community in Palestine hunkered down to figure out how to buy and fix up old ships and recruit sailing crews.

 

There was the wealthy industrialist to sign the checks, the New Orleans Jew with connections in the Central American shipping industry who managed to bribe the right people in Honduras and Panama to get permission to fly ships with their country's flags, and the Jewish volunteers who agreed to work only for pocket money to buy cigarettes.

Most of these young men had some experience at sea, but others had been infantrymen, paratroopers and pilots. Veterans of the Pacific theater and the Battle of the Bulge, again they were heading into uncertain waters.

Greenfield pulled out a map and traced the route from which the Hatikvah came - all 13 stops. It set sail in Miami, went to places such as Charleston and Baltimore for repairs, and eventually refueled in the Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal. From there the ship sailed to Italy, where the passengers secretly boarded.

The ship never did reach the shores of Palestine. A British destroyer pulled up alongside about a week into its journey and issued the standard warning: "Your voyage is illegal, your ship is un-seaworthy. In the name of humanity, surrender."

Passengers in the next 14 months would live in Cyprus at a hot and crowded displaced persons camp. Those who had been locked away in concentration camps again found themselves behind barbed wire.

 

But in Cyprus, at least there were moments of joy -- and many marriages. Among the newlyweds were Reuven and Hedva Gil, survivors from Poland who had met in Italy awaiting the Hatikvah. They shared their first kiss on its deck.

"We could not resist," said Reuven, 81, a sheepish smile creeping across his face. "Maybe it was the moonlight, the sea or maybe our youth."

By the time Hatikvah's passengers finally landed in Haifa, the Jewish state had been declared and Israel's War of Independence was raging.

Greenfield never went back to live in New York. He settled in Israel, where he worked in business and publishing. He also established the Association for Americans and Canadians in Israel.

 

Greenfield smiled as he listened to Fela Shapira, one of the survivors he helped bring to Israel, recount her memories.

"We were proud to have Jewish sailors," said Shapira, 81. "We did not know such a thing even existed."

 

 

Mickey & Minnie Mouse en Winnie de Poeh en het opblazen van Israelische bussen

 

In navolging van Hamas heeft nu ook Fatah TV, gecontroleerd door de gematigde president Abbas, een kindershow waarin terrorisme en het vermoorden van Israelische kinderen worden verheerlijkt. Ook wordt de kinderen geleerd dat Israel geen bestaansrecht heeft en 'bezet Palestina' is.

 

RP

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Bulletin September 9, 2008

Palestinian Media Watch

 

Mickey Mouse Again
Disney images adorn studio

while mass murderer glorified

By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

Palestinian Authority (Fatah) TV is using the universally beloved characters of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Winnie the Pooh and Piglet in an attempt to create a Disney-like studio --  while teaching children to glorify a mass murderer whose victims included 12 children. In a new official PA TV studio built for a Ramadan children's program, the smiling images of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Pooh and Piglet are the backdrop for a TV quiz that this week venerated a notorious terrorist.

The female terrorist, Dalal Mughrabi, participated in the murders of 12 children and 25 adults in a 1978 bus attack in Israel. In this quiz, Mughrabi is idolized as the "beloved bride, daughter of Jaffa, jasmine flower," while figures of Mickey and Minnie Mouse are prominent in the background -- as if it were a Disney program.

Click here to view
www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=qo5fYkByU0k:

 

 [PA TV (Fatah), Sept. 4-6, 2008]

In May 2007, PMW reported that the Hamas TV network was using a Mickey Mouse character to teach children to seek world Islamic domination. The widespread international outrage prompted Al Aqsa TV to get rid of the character (they showed him being beaten to death by an Israeli officer) and replace him with another animal host.

Now Fatah TV, controlled by the office of PA head Mahmoud Abbas, is airing a children's show that glorifies a mass murderer of children while trying to create a Mickey Mouse Club atmosphere.
Last week the program taught children to deny the existence of Israel.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qI2ivZA2-Z4

The world did not put up with Hamas's use of the iconic Mickey Mouse to brainwash children. Will the same international pressure be brought upon Mahmud Abbas and the official Palestinian Authority to stop using these beloved characters to sell terror?


Click here to view video: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qo5fYkByU0k

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

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

 

Slachtoffer tellingen door Betselem kloppen niet

 

De Israelische mensenrechtenorganisatie Betselem wordt alom als betrouwbare bron beschouwd wat betreft Israelische mensenrechtenschendingen in de bezette gebieden en aantallen dode burgers en strijders aan beide kanten. Onterecht, zo blijkt uit onderstaande gedetailleerde analyse van de door Israel gedode Palestijnen in november en december van 2007. Van veel Palestijnse doden beweert Betselem onterecht dat zij 'niet in gevechtshandelingen verwikkeld waren' toen zij werden gedood, suggererend dat zij dus onschuldige slachtoffers waren. In een geval werd de dood van een Palestijns jongetje van 11 aan Israel toegeschreven terwijl hij in gevechten tussen Fatah en Hamas omkwam, zoals gedocumenteerd door het Palestijnse Centrum voor Mensenrechten (PCHR). Ook laat Betselem het veelvuldig na te vermelden wanneer slachtoffers tot een gewapende factie behoren, en wordt informatie van Israelische veiligheidsdiensten, zoals dat de slachtoffers op weg waren om een aanslag in Israel te plegen of zojuist raketten hadden afgevuurd, consequent genegeerd.

 

De reputatie van Betselem als betrouwbare organisatie blijkt dus onterecht, en de media zouden er goed aan doen haar als een van de partijen in het conflict te beschouwen, die zich vooral op Palestijnse bronnen en getuigen baseert.

 

RP

-------

In 2007, B'Tselem Casualty Count Doesn't Add Up

 

September 4, 2008by Tamar Sternthal - CAMERA
www.camera.org:80/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=39&x_article=1533

 

B'Tselem has pulled it off again, duping the mainstream media into believing it has tallied civilian Palestinian casualties when it has done no such thing. The oft-cited organization bills itself as a human rights group devoted to rigorous documentation of Israeli conduct in the West Bank and Gaza aimed at educating the public and encouraging political action. Yet the so-called documentation continues to be marred by serious flaws that journalists routinely ignore while reporting the group's charges at face value.

B'Tselem, it should be noted, is heavily funded by European entities, including German, British, Irish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian and Swiss groups, as well as the Ford Foundation and the New Israel Fund.

Among the most deceptive claims by the group are those embedded in its yearly statistical summary of Palestinian fatalities. B'Tselem reported in a Dec. 31, 2007 press release that in 2007 Israeli security forced killed 373 Palestinians and that "about 35 percent of those killed were civilians who were not taking part in the hostilities when killed." These claims were reported without caveat in the New York Times, Voice of America, the Guardian, and the New York Jewish Week, among others.

Despite the press release's statement about the percentage of those killed who were civilians, B'Tselem's data do not actually break down Palestinian casualties according to civilians or combatants. In most but not all cases, the organization's detailed list of Palestinian casualties classifies each person as "Killed when participating in hostilities" or "Did not participate in hostilities when killed." Clearly, those in the latter category are not necessarily civilians, as a terrorist could be killed while, for instance, not directly in the process of planting a bomb or shooting a soldier. Moreover, B'Tselem almost never includes any reference to terrorist affiliations of Palestinian casualties, making it impossible for readers to know who was genuinely a civilian and who was not.

As CAMERA had done for 2006, a detailed review was conducted of B'Tselem's data for the months of November and December 2007. Multiple inconsistencies and irregularities were found, some of which were continuations of last year's questionable methodology, including the organization's discounting of contradictory information from Israeli and Arab sources pointing to individuals' involvement in hostilities at the time of their death as well as the failure to identify terrorist affiliations.

There were also new problems. For example, the death of an 11-year-old boy killed in Fatah-Hamas clashes is blamed on Israel, while B'Tselem leaves out the killing of two Palestinians, who according to even Palestinian sources, were Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members attempting to infiltrate into Israel.

For the November-December 2007 period, B'Tselem identifies 92 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, of which 57 (62 percent) are identified as "Killed when participating in hostilities," and 23 (25 percent) are identified as "did not participate in hostilities when killed." The rest - 12 (13 percent) - were not labelled as either participating in hostilities or not when killed.

2007 Findings: Executive Summary

CAMERA's in-depth review of November and December casualties reveals how unreliable B'Tselem's characterizations of Palestinian deaths are.
* In total, there are six casualties that B'Tselem claimed were not involved in hostilities when killed but that other sources - Israeli and/or Arab - said were (Hamas member al-Najar, killed Nov. 20; Muhammad Fawzi Muhammad Abu Hasanin, killed Dec. 27; the two a-Nabahin brothers, killed Nov. 9; Muhammad Salah, killed Dec. 5; Majed Matar, killed Dec. 6).
* In addition, three other Palestinian casualties not involved in hostilities when killed but whose terrorist affiliation B'Tselem ignored are Hashem 'Ein 'Abd al-'Aziz Abu Khadurah, killed Nov. 4, and the two Hamas Executive Force (aka "police officers") killed Dec. 18 .
* Then there are the two Hamas naval officers whose affiliation B'Tselem did note but who were nevertheless classified as not participating in hostilities.
* To these 11 casualties, the death of an 11-year-old boy, which B'Tselem falsely blamed on Israel, must be added. Subtracting these 12 from the 23 counted as not participating in hostilities, leaves at most 11 (12 percent) Palestinian civilian deaths for the months of November - December - less than half the number of Palestinians that B'Tselem claims.

Detailed analyses of each of the above cases appear below.

Israeli Forces Falsely Blamed in Boy's Death
B'Tselem blames Israel for the death of a Palestinian boy who was in reality killed in Fatah-Hamas clashes. According to B'Tselem, 11-year-old Muhammad Ayman 'Ali Abu al-Wafa was killed Dec. 31, 2007 in Khan Younis by Israeli security forces while he was not participating in hostilities. Yet, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Israeli forces had nothing at all to do with al-Wafa's death. PCHR reports:

Regarding armed clashes, the most serious incidents occurred at approximately 18:30 on Monday, 31 December 2007, when clashes broke out between dozens of Fatah supporters in the El-Amal Quarter in Khan Yunis and Hamas supporters near El-Rahma Mosque. Both sides threw rocks, and shots were fired.
Two people died during the clash. Mahmoud Shaker Abu Taha, age 58, was shot in the abdomen and killed. Twelve year old Mohammad Ayman Abu El-Wafa was killed after he was shot in the head. (Jan. 3, 2008 press release)

Hamas Fighter 'Did Not Participate in Hostilities'
In another case, B'Tselem writes that Muhammad Zaki Jum'ah al-Najar, killed Nov. 20, 2007 in Khan Yunis, "Did not participate in hostilities when killed. Additional information: Killed when he was near his house while soldiers were in the area."
Yet, Hamas claims al-Najar as one of its own, killed in battle. Its English Web site mourns him:
As Al Aqsa intifada against the occupation assault on the Gaza Strip continues, Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades has its best men to be in the playground of death to defend their people from any attack by the enemy.. Today , Al-Qassam Brigades mourns the death of the mujahid: Mohammed Zaki Al Najjar
The mujahid was martyred during a clash with the Zionist occupation forces in Khuza'a area east of Khanyounis city.

Terrorist Affiliations Ignored
As in 2006, B'Tselem almost always fails to include the fatalities' affiliations with terror groups. Thus, in some cases, leading terrorists are misleadingly labelled as "did not participate in hostilities when killed." Omitting the terrorist affiliation of a casualty who "did not participate in hostilities when killed" can obviously lead journalists and other researchers to falsely conclude the slain individual was a civilian.
For example, according to B'Tselem, Muhammad Ahmad Suliman Abu Hasanin, 42, and Muhammad Fawzi Muhammad Abu Hasanin, 30, were both killed Dec. 27, 2007 "in al-Bureij Refugee Camp, Dir al-Balah district, by gunfire, from a helicopter." The latter reportedly "Did not participate in hostilities when killed," while the former's involvement in hostilities is not indicated one way or another. Additional information is provided for both men: "Killed while traveling in a car with a relative."
Yet, Palestinian Ma'an News Agency reported Dec. 27:
Yet another Israeli strike targeted a car in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip in which three Al-Quds Brigades activists were traveling. Two were killed and the third was wounded.
Al Quds Brigades spokesperson Abu Ahmad named the deceased as Muhammad Ahmad Abu Hassanain and Muhammad Fawzi Abu Hassanain, both from An-Nuseirat refugee camp.
Thus, for some reason, while B'Tselem researchers finds it noteworthy that the men were relatives, they do not consider their status in Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades terror organization relevant.

This reticence to identify terrorist affiliation occurs in other fatality categories; B'Tselem notes the Dec. 17, 2007 deaths of six different men in Gaza City but does not specify for any of them whether or not they were killed while participating in hostilities. B'Tselem does note for each of them, however, that: "He was the object of a targeted killing." Yet, B'Tselem again fails to identify them as members of Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades. In contrast, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights notes their affiliations and identifies one of them, Majed Yousef al-Harazin, 35, as "commander of the al-Quds Brigades."

Similarly, B'Tselem does not note the terrorist affiliations of Naser Khalil Khalil al-Masar'i, Sami Fadel Hussein Tafesh, and Salman Muhammad Salman Yasin, killed together on Dec. 13 in Gaza City "while travelling in Taxi." (B'Tselem also does not specify whether or not they were participating in hostilities when killed.) Yet, both Israeli and Palestinian sources state that the three were members of a terror group. As Ibrahim Barzak of the Associated Press reported Dec. 13:
Israeli aircraft targeted a car in Gaza City after nightfall Thursday, killing three militants, a Palestinian hospital official and the Israeli military said. . .
Islamic Jihad said they were members of that militant group, but Palestinians identifying the bodies at the hospital said they belonged to the Fatah offshoot that fired rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot hours earlier, seriously wounding a woman.

Another slain Islamic Jihad member whose affiliation B'Tselem ignored was Hashem 'Ein 'Abd al-'Aziz Abu Khadurah, killed Nov. 4 in Beit Lahiya. B'Tselem notes that he "did not participate in hostilities when killed" and was "Killed when he approached the area in which three factory guards were killed." According to AFP and AP (but not B'Tselem), Khadurah is an Islamic Jihad member. For example, AFP's Sakher Abu El Oun wrote:
An Israeli air strike killed Baseem Khadura, 25, from the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, and critically wounded another militant from the radical faction in the same area, medical officials and witnesses said.

Two exceptions to B'Tselem's decision not to report terrorist affiliations are 'Issam Sa'di Sbiyh Hamdan and Rami Hussein Sa'id Abu a-Rus, both killed Nov. 28 in Khan Yunis. About the two, B'Tselem writes: "Did not participate in hostilities when killed. Additional information: Hamas naval police officer, killed when the police were bombed in response to mortar fire at Israel."
In contrast, when Hamas Executive Force members Hani Najeh Muhammad Barhum and Muhammad Khaled Hassan a-Sharif were killed at police headquarters in the Rafah Refugee Camp on Dec. 18, B'Tselem noted only that they were "Police officer[s]."

Israeli Information Ignored
Continuing the trend documented last year, B'Tselem still ignores Israeli sources pointing to Palestinians' involvement in hostilities at the time of their deaths.
Thus, while Israeli sources said that the aforementioned Abu Hasanin relatives were on their way to a terror attack when killed Dec. 27, B'Tselem insisted that one "did not participate in hostilities" when killed and gave no indication of the other's involvement. Yet, according to Ha'aretz, on Dec. 27:
an IAF aircraft fired at a car containing a large quantity of munitions in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing two Islamic Jihad operatives. A security source said they were on their way to a terror attack.
Similarly, Israeli security forces said that Sami Tafesh, and his two friends, killed Dec. 13 while in the taxi as described above, had just launched rockets that hit a woman's house in Sderot. As Ha'aretz reported Dec. 14 ("IAF strike kills three Palestinians detected launching Qassam"):
An Israel Air Force strike killed three Palestinian militants in Gaza City on Thursday evening, after they were detected firing a Qassam rocket at Israel.
The IAF targeted a car in the Zaytoun section of Gaza City, a Palestinian hospital official and the Israel Defense Forces said. The three militants belonged to the Islamic Jihad militant group.
The Islamic Jihad said one of the dead was Sami Tafesh, a commander of its rocket crews.
B'Tselem also alleged brothers Bilal Ahmad 'Alian a-Nabahin (14) and Jihad 'Alian Muhammad a-Nabahin (17), killed Nov. 9 in the al-Bureij Refugee Camp "did not participate in hostilities when killed." Yet, AFP reports:
The Israeli army said one of its units along the border wtih central Gaza on Friday shot two Palestinians "who were crawling in the directions of the security fence with the apparent intention of placing an explosive charge." (Nov. 10, "Gunfire kills two Gazans")
Likewise, about 22-year-old Mu'atasem Rafiq Saleh a-Sharif, killed Dec. 27 in Ramallah, B'Tselem writes that he was "Killed while driving his car a few minutes after leaving his house." B'Tselem does not note whether or not he was participating in hostilities at the time he was killed, although the aforementioned detail that he was driving from his house suggests he wasn't. Yet, Israeli sources painted an entirely different picture of the death of a-Sharif, a body guard for negotiator Ahmed Qureia:
But late Thursday, the Israeli military sent a team into a suburb of Ramallah, the seat of Abbas' government, to arrest one of Qureia's bodyguards, a member of the Palestinian security forces who the military said was implicated in armed activity against Israel and had provided weapons to other militants.
"He opened fire at troops and they fired back, killing him," the IDF said.
Palestinian security officials denied that the bodyguard, 23-year-old Mu'tasem Sharif fired at troops. Qureia, a former Palestinian prime minister, had no immediate comment. (Ha'aretz, Dec. 28, 2007)

Also in the West Bank, according to B'Tselem, Muhammad Zaki Muhammad Quzah, "Wanted by Israel" and "Killed by undercover until while [sic] standing and drinking coffee with friends," died Nov. 25 in Tulkarem. According to a Nov. 25 IDF press release, the IDF shot Quzah when he fled an arrest attempt:

During an IDF arrest operation in the Tulkarem R.C. an IDF force identified two wanted Palestinians. When the force called on them to stop the men began to run away from the scene. The force fired at them and identified killing one of them, Muhamad Zaki Muhamad Kuzah, and injuring the other.

The IDF reported that he was involved in planning terror attacks on the Israeli homefront and was responsible for shooting and bombing attack on IDF troops in the Tulkarem area. He also built ties with Hezbollah and other terror groups.
The story repeats itself in the case of Muhammad Khalil Muhammad Salah, killed Dec. 5 in Bethelehem. B'Tselem reported that he "Did not participate in hostilities when killed," and added: "A policeman, he was shot and killed by Israeli undercover forces riding in a commercial vehicle when he ordered them to stop for inspection." Yet, according to an IDF press release that day, the policeman was involved in an exchange of fire with the Israeli soldiers: "This afternoon, armed gunmen opened fire at an IDF force, during an arrest operation in Bethlehem. The force returned fire at the gunmen and identified hitting them. After the incident, it was discovered that Palestinian security personnel were involved."
Again, B'Tselem reported that Majed 'Awad Matar Matar killed the next day (Dec. 6) "Did not participate in hostilities when killed. Additional information: Killed while hunting birds with his brother and others about one kilometer from the Israeli border." Yet, the Jerusalem Post reported Dec. 7: "The army said it opened fire at two men next to the border fence after they were spotted planting an explosive device." One was killed, the other wounded, reported the Post.
Regarding two brothers, Ra'fat Salamah 'Abdallah Abu Shagheibah and Talal Salamah 'Abdallah Abu Shagheibah of Beit Hanun, killed Nov. 23, 2007, B'Tselem reports for each of them that he "did not participate in hostilities when killed" and that he was "Killed while on his way home during an army incursion into the area." Yet, various press accounts about the brothers are conflicting. Palestinian hospital workers told Agence France Presse a different story. AFP reported Nov. 24:
Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces overnight in the north of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital sources said Saturday.
They said the two brothers in their forties, Talal and Rafat Abu Shrena, were trying to cross into Israel in search of work.
The Palestinian medical staff likewise told AP that the men were approaching the border fence, and did not mention that they were on their way home, as B'Tselem claims. AP's Ibrahim Barzak reported Nov. 24:
Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian men who approached the border fence separating Gaza from Israel overnight, Palestinian medical staff said.
The two brothers, in their forties, had walked close to an Israel-Gaza border terminal late on Friday night. Local residents said the men often scoured the area for cement and other building materials to sell. . . .
An army statement said the two men were suspicious and were shot as they moved in darkness toward troops at the border fence, which is an area off limits to Palestinians.
Finally, an AFP photo of the two men's bodies on display show them clearly draped in Hamas flags, signifying that they are members of the terrorist organization - a detail which B'Tselem habitually considers irrelevant, but which is key to any count of "civilian" versus "non-civilian" casualties.
In some of the cases described above, it may be difficult for CAMERA or B'Tselem to determine whether the events happened as the Israeli forces described them or as Palestinians did. Nevertheless, it is indefensible that B'Tselem routinely ignores the Israeli position. At the very least, if the circumstances of death are disputed, B'Tselem has an obligation to say so.

Two Terrorists Not Listed
B'Tselem fails to report the death of two Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorists, killed Nov. 20. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights reports their death, which occurred as they attempted to infiltrate into Israel, as follows:
At approximately 01:30, IOF [Israeli Occupation Forces] troops positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, north of Beit Lahia, opened fire at a number of members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (an armed wing of Fatah movement), who were attempting to infiltrate through the border. Two members of the group were killed. At approximately 11:30, IOF informed the Palestinian liaison that there were two bodies to the north of Beit Lahia. An ambulance went to the area and found the bodies only at approximately 16:00, a few meters away from the border. IOF troops asked the medical crew to gather the weapons, which were near the body, put them in a plastic sac and hand them to the troops. The two bodies were taken to Kamal 'Edwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, and the two victims were identifies as: Ahmed 'Ali Abu Sitta, 22, from Khan Yunis; and Guevara Ahmed Saleh, 21, from al-Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City.
B'Tselem entirely omits Sitta and Saleh, who were unquestionably involved in hostilities at the time of their death

The Al Dura Litmus Test
But if this detailed analysis is too long or tedious for the time-strapped journalist or other skeptic to absorb, here's one quick fact which should raise serious question marks about B'Tselem's credibility on Palestinian casualties: the organization still lists Mohammad Al-Dura as killed by Israeli security forces.

 

 

De taal van het antisemitisme

 

In Engeland worden niet alleen antisemitische incidenten jaarlijks gerapporteerd, maar is nu ook onderzoek gedaan naar antisemitisme in de media, met name in relatie tot Israel en de Palestijnse kwestie. Antisemitisme blijkt zich vaak te verschuilen achter kritiek op Israel:

 

When neo-Nazis allege Jewish control of the media or government, Jewish conspiracies to cause war or global foment, or Jewish infanticide and bloodlust, and when their propaganda portrays Jews as snakes, dragons or other beasts, nobody questions whether it is anti-Semitic. When similar allegations are made and associations drawn, but about supporters of Israel, not Jews per se, and set in the context of arguments over Israel and the Palestinians, there are plenty of people who cannot, or will not, see the connection between this contemporary discourse and an anti-Semitic past. Neo-Nazis have spotted this, and now also talk about Zionists, not Jews, blurring the distinctions further.

 

Dit is maar al te herkenbaar in Nederland, en het wordt tijd dat ook hier specifiek aandacht wordt besteed aan het gebruik van antisemitische beelden, stereotiepen en beschuldigingen in het debat over Israel.

 

RP

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

The language of anti-Semitism

 

By Dave Rich
Haaretz / Sept. 6, 2008

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1018537.html

 

When, in 2003, the veteran Labour MP Tam Dalyell described the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair as being influenced by a "Jewish cabal," he was roundly condemned for making what many saw as an obviously antisemitic remark. Some, though, sought to justify his comment as a legitimate, if poorly-worded, criticism of Israel's supporters, rather than something more sinister.

The late left-wing journalist Paul Foot, writing in The Guardian, explained that Dalyell was "wrong to complain about Jewish pressure on Blair and Bush when he means Zionist pressure."

The idea that political leaders are influenced for malign purposes by Jews is at the heart of modern anti-Semitism. It is an alarming but increasingly familiar notion that by swapping "Zionist" for "Jewish" - i.e. that the then Prime Minister was surrounded by a "Zionist cabal" - Dalyell's comment can be rendered apparently "bigotry-free." This is typical of an anti-Semitic discourse by which the most common ideas, themes and images from the history of anti-Semitism have re-emerged in recent years, cloaked in an anti-Israel or anti-Zionist wrapping.

This is something that the U.K.'s All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism recognised. Their report noted the existence of an anti-Semitic discourse, the difficulty in identifying and defining it, and that ideas and images with roots in traditional antisemitism crop up in anti-Israel commentary and activism. The Inquiry called on the media in particular to consider "the impact of language and imagery in current discourse on Judaism, anti-Zionism and Israel."

This is not an easy subject to analyse. Opinions will differ over exactly where, or whether, an anti-Israel screed becomes anti-Semitic. Often, the writer or publisher in question may be completely unaware that the words or images they choose have an anti-Semitic provenance. There is a necessary process of education before it can even be asked why a particular metaphor appealed to them, or why they thought it would resonate with their readers.

In an effort to measure and track the phenomenon, my organisation, CST, has published its first survey of anti-Semitism in mainstream discourse in Britain. This publication will be produced annually - the first one covers 2007 - and will complement our existing reports into anti-Semitic incidents each year.

One example is of a magazine article about the pro-Israel lobby in America which was illustrated with a cartoon of a giant sea dragon, emblazoned with what looked like a Star of David, but was in fact the AIPAC logo, a nuance that will have been missed by many of its British readers. Anti-Semitic iconography has long portrayed Jews as dragons, both in their individual physicality and as an abstract, collective force.

When a funding scandal broke involving donors to the Labour Party, and some (although by no means most) of the figures linked to the scandal happened to be Jewish, The Independent's columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown wrote of "the shadowy role of Labour Friends of Israel" and described the central figure in the story as a "strange shape-shifter," while expressing her fear of "the wrath of Moses" for daring to ask such questions.

We also found - and this is something with which Haaretz, like every major media organisation, has to grapple - that new media have opened a space, via online social networks, talkboards, message forums and so on, for expressions of anti-Semitism and other bigotry that previously only existed on extremist Web sites.

When the British Medical Journal ran an online poll asking if readers supported or opposed an academic boycott of Israel, one reader left the message: "Would you not boycott dr mengele [sic]?" An infamous posting on the BBC talkboards, which the BBC moderators removed and then put back after they decided it did not contravene their rules, read: "Zionism is a racist ideology where jews are given supremacy over all other races and faiths. This is found in the Talmud..."

When neo-Nazis allege Jewish control of the media or government, Jewish conspiracies to cause war or global foment, or Jewish infanticide and bloodlust, and when their propaganda portrays Jews as snakes, dragons or other beasts, nobody questions whether it is anti-Semitic. When similar allegations are made and associations drawn, but about supporters of Israel, not Jews per se, and set in the context of arguments over Israel and the Palestinians, there are plenty of people who cannot, or will not, see the connection between this contemporary discourse and an anti-Semitic past. Neo-Nazis have spotted this, and now also talk about Zionists, not Jews, blurring the distinctions further.

Anti-Semitism is not just about the hate crimes that make up the numbers of anti-Semitic incidents that get reported each year; it is also about the ideas, words and images of anti-Semitic discourse. We hope our report will go some way to helping measure, assess and understand this side of a very old bigotry.

 

Dave Rich is Deputy Director of Communications for CST, which provides security and defense services to the U.K. Jewish community and advises government and police on anti-Semitism and terrorism.

http://www.thecst.org.uk/docs/Antisemitic%20Discourse%20Report%202007_web.pdf

Hezbollah heeft controle over bergen noord-Libanon

 

Hezbollah blijft haar greep versterken en is de dominante militaire macht in Libanon, hierbij actief gesteund door Syrië en Iran.

 

RP

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Reform Party of Syria
Freedom - Democracy - Peace

Hezbollah Completes Take-Over of Lebanese Mountains

September 6, 2008 //RPS Staff//

 

 

In coordination with the Assad regime, in particular Mohammed Nassif Kheir Bek (Abou Wael), in addition to Iranian agents working directly within Hezbollah's rank and file, the renegade Hezbollah militia has quietly established positions in Kobayat and Founaydek mountain tops in Northern Lebanon in anticipation of an internal Lebanese war Assad of Syria has been preparing for using his own homegrown terrorists.

Hezbollah has also occupied the Sanneen mountain top, the highest in Lebanon and the Barook mountain top surrounding the Beirut-Damascus Highway and normally a Druze enclave.

Kobayat and Founaydek are known to be Christian enclaves in the north. Their strategic value, besides connecting Hezbollah's communications infrastructure, lies in their military commanding heights over Tripoli and surrounding areas. Yesterday, the March 14 coalition, warned against the drum beat of war sparked by what Assad said during his press conference with President Sarkozy of France to the effect that extremism in the north may force Syria to re-enter Lebanon. About two months ago, sectarian incidents erupted in Tripoli, which killed some 20 Lebanese when Sunni and Alawites clashed.

Analysts believe that the somewhat inexperienced administration of Sarkozy's new government believes the intelligence provided by its staff in Lebanon, which is mostly influenced by Syrian agents playing a double game. In the past, March 14 has accused Assad of stationing Fatah al-Islam in the North of Lebanon in order to create justification for Syrian forces to re-enter the country under the auspices of saving the international community from Islamic extremism.

According to reliable sources, Syria continues developing and arming Fatah al-Islam the same way it continues coordinating with the remnants of al-Qaeda in Iraq by sending Syrian military intelligence officers to fill the void left by their defeat by the US troops and the Iraqis.

The speed by which the international community is allowing Assad free reign of terror in Lebanon and Iraq is quite disturbing. Years of isolating the Assad regime with success is being dismantled by renegade policy makers within the Bush administration by taking advantage of noticeable absence in the White House and the distractions caused by US elections.

 

Reform Party of Syria | 1700 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. | Washington | DC | 20004

 

VN gaat $1 miljard van Israel eisen voor schadeherstel Libanon

 

Dit is vrij absurd. De oorlog is het gevolg van Hebollah's agressie, door niet alleen soldaten te kidnappen en te doden, maar ook, voordat Israel iets deed, burgerdoelen te beschieten. Hezbollah had daarvoor stilzwijgend toestemming van de Libanese regering, waarin het ook vertegenwoordigd was en is. Het uitbreken van de Tweede Libanonoorlog was bovendien het gevolg van het niet naleven van resolutie 1559, die duidelijk stelde dat geen andere milities dan het Libanese Leger actief mogen zijn op Libanese bodem, laat staan dat zij andere landen aanvallen.

 

Onderstaand plan betekent een beloning voor de agressor in deze oorlog, en zal haar macht en prestige verder doen stijgen. In plaats van Israel voor de oorlogsschade te laten betalen, zou de VN moeten toezien op naleving van resolutie 1701, die -wederom - stelde dat buiten het leger geen gewapende groepen actief mogen zijn in Libanon, en in het bijzonder eiste dat Hezbollah zich terug zou trekken ten noorden van de Litani rivier. Ook de illegale wapensmokkel via Syrië zou worden aangepakt. Terwijl Hezbollah haar greep op Libanon steeds verder versterkt, komt een volgende confrontatie met Israel zo langzaam dichterbij.

 

RP

---------

 

Report: UN to demand Israel pay Lebanon $1 billion
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3592764,00.html

 

Lebanese media say Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to instruct Israel to take responsibility for environmental damages caused by 2006 war, including oil spill following bombing of Beirut power plant

 

Roee Nahmias
Published:  09.06.08, 13:15

 

 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will demand that Israel pay Lebanon $1 billion in compensation over damages caused during the Jewish state's 2006 war against Hizbullah, Lebanese media reported Saturday.

 

According to the report, the sum, based on World Bank appraisals, is aimed at covering the environmental and material damages caused by the Second Lebanon War, to neighboring countries as well.

The fundamental part of the compensation demanded is for the damage caused to the Lebanese coast due to an oil spill following an Israeli bombing of a southern Beirut power plant, which the Lebanese said had caused "an ecological disaster."

 

According to the report, Ban plans to submit a report to the United Nations General Assembly at the end of the month, stating that damage Israel caused to the oil reservoir polluted Lebanon's coast, and that the pollution spread to neighboring countries, especially Syria.

 

Ban further notes that the UN rehabilitation plan managed to clean some of the oil spill in several areas in northern Lebanon seashores.

 

 The oil spill, which was defined the greatest natural disaster in Lebanon's history, took place after Israel Air Force planes hit a power plant and caused some 110,000 oil barrels to leak into the Mediterranean Sea.

The report said that the UN wants Israel to compensate the countries harmed by the oil spill and restore the environmental situation along the Lebanon coast. The Jewish state has yet to respond to the demand, despite messages conveyed in August 2007.

 

About half a year ago, news agencies reported that the German government granted Lebanon 4.5 million euros (about $6.4 million) to help finance environmental projects and damage restoration activities following the war.

 

 

Grot van de Patriarchen in Hebron ontwijd

 

Hoe ga je om met gedeelde heilige plaatsen? Je sluit ze tijdelijk af voor een van beide religies, of slechts een gedeelte is open voor beiden zodat ze elkaar niet in de weg lopen.

 

Ook de Heilige Grafkerk in Jeruzalem heeft te maken met ruzieënde kerkgenootschappen, die ingewikkelde afspraken en procedures overeen zijn gekomen. In totaal maken niet minder dan 6 verschillende gemeenschappen gebruik van de kerk, en dat heeft de nodige fricties tot gevolg.

 

Hoe bezoek aan en de positie van heilige plaatsen op de Westoever geregeld moet worden wanneer daar een Palestijnse staat wordt gesticht, is - om het mild uit te drukken - een lastig probleem.

 

RP

-------

Muslims Defile Patriarchs' Cave

 

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu - A7News

7 September 2008

http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=40610

 

Muslims converged on the Cave of Patriarchs in Hevron Friday for Ramadan prayers, urinated next to Torah scrolls and left behind Hamas flags.

 

The Cave of the Patriarchs is the tomb of the biblical founders of the Jewish faith, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their wives, Sarah, Rivka, and Leah.

The desecration occurred on one of the 10 days during the year that the holy site is open only to Muslims and is closed to Jews. The same arrangement also is accorded to Jews on 10 holy Jewish days.

Uri Karzen, a Hevron resident, reported that a Kohen, who recites the priestly blessings during the Sabbath morning service, told him he smelled urine next to the Holy Ark containing Torah scrolls. Karzen and other worshippers moved the table, where the Torah scrolls are placed during the reciting of the portion of the week, in order to avoid the foul smell.

The Hamas flags were discovered in the windows that mark the burial sites of Abraham and Isaac and the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca and Leah.

Hevron resident Asher Horowitz explained that he and others spotted the flags when they were returning holy books, which had been taken into safe storage before the prohibition from Jews entering the Cave of the Patriarchs went into effect. He used a stick to pull one of the flags from the marker of the burial site of Avraham and friends told him they found flags at other markers.

Ever since Muslims destroyed Torah scrolls in the Cave of the Patriarchs in the 1980s, Jews always remove holy books and lock the Holy Ark when they are prohibited from entering.

Noam Arnon, spokesman for the Jewish community in Hevron, said there is always some sort of damage discovered upon their return every time Jews are prohibited from entering the holy site.

"It is not all the Muslims," he said. "But there always are a few who in the past have ripped mezuzot off the entrances to the rooms of worship or simply leave behind vandalism. Complaints have been filed with the police in the past, but no one ever has been arrested."

He added that two policemen are always on guard when Jews pray, especially when Arabs are prohibited from entering, but there are no policemen present when Jews are excluded.

Surveillance cameras are mounted, but Karzen said the place where urine was smelled may have been out of range of the cameras. The cameras should have caught on film the placement of Hamas flags, according to Horowitz.

Hevron police said they know nothing about the incidents and that an official complaint may not have been filed yet out of respect for the Sabbath.

 

 

Israëlische commando's bijna ontmaskerd in Syrië

 

Interessante onthullingen in een nieuw boek van de Israelische journalist Ronen Bergman over de connecties tussen Hezbollah en Al Qaida, over waarom de Franse geheime dienst nummer 2 van Hezbollah, Imad Mughnieh liet gaan, over Bush's vermeende plannen om Iran aan te vallen en Israelisch veldonderzoek voordat men een atoomcentrale in Syrie bombardeerde.

 

RP

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'Commandos nearly exposed in Syria'

 

David Horovitz , THE JERUSALEM POST

Sep. 5, 2008
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1220526713731&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

Aware that some members of both the American and the Israel intelligence community were not entirely convinced that President Bashar Assad was building a nuclear facility in the summer of 2007, Israel in mid-August sent 12 members of the Sayeret Matkal commando unit into Syria in two helicopters to collect soil samples outside the nuclear site. But the commandos' mission was almost exposed when a Syrian patrol drove past the landing site where the helicopters were parked.

This is one of the dramatic revelations contained in a new book by Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman that is being published next week in the US.

The daring mission to Syria was a success, Bergman writes. "The results provided clear-cut proof of the joint nuclear project." The following month, the Israel Air Force destroyed the facility.

Also in the book, The Secret War with Iran, Bergman claims that US Vice President Richard Cheney contacted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert after the release of the controversial US National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear program late last year to tell him that the US had "not discarded" the possibility "of an American military operation against Iranian nuclear targets."

Bergman writes that the Mossad's assessment, as of May this year, is that President George W. Bush, "out of religious and ideological motives, will order a strike."

Elsewhere in the book, Bergman provides details of a familiar charge that France deliberately chose not to arrest Hizbullah terror mastermind Imad Mughniyeh when he passed through Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport in the mid-1980s, because it feared that stopping him would prompt further terrorism against its interests.

Mughniyeh, who in 1983 had orchestrated simultaneous truck bombings against French paratroopers and the US Marine barracks in Beirut, in which 58 French soldiers and 241 Marines were killed, was a prime target for Western intelligence agencies at the time - and, indeed, for the next 20 years. Indicted by Argentina over the 1992 and 1994 Israel embassy and Jewish community office bombings and regarded as the brains behind Hizbullah's strategy in the Second Lebanon War, Mughniyeh was finally killed in Damascus last February. Nobody has taken responsibility for his death.

Israel is currently warning businessmen overseas to guard against Hizbullah attempts to avenge his death by carrying out kidnappings; at least two such attempts are said to have recently been foiled.

According to Bergman, Mughniyeh was traveling from Lebanon to Sudan, to meet with Iranian intelligence officials and mujahideen veterans from Afghanistan, and made a stopover at Charles de Gaulle. "The CIA had supplied the French with details of the fake passport Mughniyeh was using," Bergman writes. "Nevertheless, and despite a positive identification made by the Americans at the airport, the French never detained him, claiming 'that he had managed to slip away.'"

US intelligence "never credited this excuse for a moment," Bergman continues, "believing that the French had let him get away on purpose, for fear of the fate of French hostages in Beirut."

He also quotes the IDF's former Military Intelligence officer David Barkai, who was in charge of the "Mughniyeh file," as saying: "The French were the champions at this kind of thing. After [Hizbullah] snatched some Frenchmen in Lebanon, the French Foreign Ministry bought peace through quiet agreements with Hizbullah. I know of at least two cases where they closed their eyes to blatant terrorist activity, just so that their interests would not be harmed."

In further sections of the book relating to Mughniyeh, Hizbullah and Iranian sponsorship of terrorism, Bergman claims that the Hizbullah terror chief served as "a major connection point" between Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida and Iran, and as a source of inspiration for bin Laden, whose attacks he helped facilitate. Bergman describes a pivotal meeting the two men held in Khartoum, at which the murderously experienced Mughniyeh described for the impressionable bin Laden "the enormous effect of the suicide attacks against the Americans and the French in the early 1980s in Lebanon."

In the wake of this meeting, Bergman writes, basing his account on a witness's testimony to the FBI, "Hizbullah supplied al-Qaida with explosives instruction, and Iran used Hizbullah to provide bin Laden with bombs. Much of the al-Qaida training was carried out in camps in Iran."

Bergman's new book is an expanded and updated English version of last year's Hebrew bestseller The Point of No Return.

The English book, published by Free Press, also repeats the Hebrew volume's claim - which is disputed by other sources - that Russian S-300 missiles have already been supplied to Iran and are deployed to help protect various Iranian nuclear facilities.

Palestijnse TV soap gecancelled: niet anti-Israël genoeg!

 

Among others, certain scenes failed to show the Israeli occupation in a negative enough light, they charged. The officials mentioned one scene in which a Palestinian gives a flower to Israeli soldiers at an army checkpoint in the West Bank.

They insinuated the series was influenced by the fact that it was funded by Germany's Goethe Institute and the European Commission, which would not back programs that do not encourage coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians.

 

Stel je voor, een Palestijnse TV serie waarin niet de bezetting centraal staat, en zelfs coëxistentie wordt gepredikt! Dat kan het trotse Palestijnse hart natuurlijk niet verdragen.

 

Dit is natuurlijk diep triest en illustreert het probleem in een notedop. Als zo'n serie als te controversieel wordt gezien, is het dus onmogelijk een boodschap van verzoening en vrede uit te dragen op de Palestijnse TV. En wat voor de TV geldt, geldt waarschijnlijk ook voor de kranten en de vrijdagdiensten en wat al niet meer. Iets waar Westerse vredestichters, weldoeners van de Palestijnen en politici eens over na zouden kunnen denken.

 

RP

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Why was airing of 1st Palestinian soap opera cancelled?

 

By DPA

Last update - 19:18 05/09/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1018539.html

 

The official Palestine Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) has cancelled the airing scheduled for this week of a new soap series, Matabb (Arabic for "speed bump").

Producer Fareed Majari confirmed Friday the cancellation, which members of the production team said came as a complete surprise.

They said no grounds were given, but speculated political reasons may be behind it, with some of the topics being dealt with in the series seen as too liberal for official Palestinian "state" television.

Officials at the PBC told Deutsche Presse-Agentur Friday that the German-funded series - the first homemade Palestinian soap opera - was not cancelled, but postponed until certain scenes were changed.

Yehya Barakat, the director of programs at PBC, denied the asked for changes constituted censorship. "Rather, it is an attempt to make sure that no scenes offensive to any party will be aired on an official television station," he said.

He said an official committee had reviewed the series and decided not to broadcast it for the time being, until the required changes were made.

The first episode had been expected to be aired on Palestine TV on Monday, first day of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, with producers hoping for high ratings as Muslim families gather at their homes in the evenings to break the day's fast.

It is now only being shown on local television stations belonging to the privately owned Ma'an television network and operating in the main Palestinian autonomous cities in the West Bank.

Barakat said he was not fully aware of the committee's reasons for not airing the show, saying he had just returned home from a trip abroad and has not yet seen the committee's report.

However, other PBC officials who preferred not to be named told DPA that the makers of the series had rushed to announce the broadcast on Palestine TV before obtaining official, final approval.

They said some scenes were found offensive to the general Palestinian public and therefore could not be aired on Palestine TV, an official and nationalist institution.

Among others, certain scenes failed to show the Israeli occupation in a negative enough light, they charged. The officials mentioned one scene in which a Palestinian gives a flower to Israeli soldiers at an army checkpoint in the West Bank.

They insinuated the series was influenced by the fact that it was funded by Germany's Goethe Institute and the European Commission, which would not back programs that do not encourage coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians.

Observers said Palestine TV, owned by the West Bank administration of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the secular Fatah party, is already struggling with claims by the rival radical Hamas.

De achterkant van al-Nakba

 

In het Tropenmuseum is een omstreden tentoonstelling te zien over 'de Nakba', waarin alleen het Palestijnse verhaal wordt verteld. 'Omdat Nederland het Israelische verhaal wel kent' aldus de directeur van het Tropenmuseum, die ontkent partij te kiezen in het conflict. Maar kennen mensen het Israelische verhaal wel zo goed? Het is immers niet veel meer te horen of zien in de media, en het beeld overheerst dat alles door de bezetting komt en de bezetting het enige probleem is. Twintig of misschien zelfs 10 jaar geleden was deze tentoonstelling gedurfd en vernieuwend geweest, nu loopt het Tropenmuseum gewoon de mode achterna.

 

RP

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De achterkant van al-Nakba

05-09-2008 20:38| gewijzigd 05-09-2008 20:40 | Jacob Hoekman

http://www.refdag.nl/artikel/1359416/De+achterkant+van+alNakba.html

Al-Nakba. De Catastrofe. Gevleugelde woorden waaraan in de hele Arabische wereld het jaar 1948 verbonden is - het geboortejaar van Israël én het jaar waarin een massale Palestijnse vluchtelingenstroom op gang kwam. De gebeurtenissen waren een recept voor schrijnend leed, zo blijkt in het Tropenmuseum. Maar ook voor ongenuanceerde verhalen.

Het Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. Met vlammende ogen kijkt de oude Palestijn de bezoekers aan vanaf het scherm. Hij vertelt over een deal die Arabische landen in 1948 met het Israëlische leger sloten. En wie waren er de dupe? De Palestijnen. Hij suggereert hoe Joden infiltreerden in Arabische landen om de besluitvorming te beïnvloeden. En wie waren er de dupe? De Palestijnen.

Ronny Naftaniel, directeur van het Centrum Informatie en Documentatie Israel (CIDI), kijkt met stijgende verbazing naar het filmpje. „Dat kun je dus echt niet brengen, dit soort complottheorieën. Dat er militair is samengewerkt tussen het Arabisch Legioen en Israël, is lariekoek. Dit bestaat alleen in het hoofd van deze man."

Ophef
Het is voor het eerst dat Naftaniel geconfronteerd wordt met de inhoud van de tentoonstelling "Palestina 1948, herinneringen aan een verdwenen vaderland", die sinds maart dit jaar te zien is in het Tropenmuseum. Eerdere verzoeken om zich erover uit te spreken wees hij categorisch af. „Het zou alleen maar tot meer ophef hebben geleid en nog meer bezoekers hebben getrokken."

Nu spreekt de CIDI-directeur toch. Terwijl hij de omstreden tentoonstelling op zich laat inwerken, geeft hij commentaar - geregeld steun zoekend in het dikke naslagwerk "1948" van de Israëlische historicus Benny Morris dat hij onder zijn arm meedraagt. „Je kunt met enige mildheid nog zeggen dat het museum de versie van de werkelijkheid brengt zoals bepaalde Palestijnen die hebben beleefd", vindt Naftaniel. „Maar dan moet er op z'n minst een verhaal tegenover staan. Dat gebeurt niet. De leugen wordt niet weersproken, terwijl een museum de plicht heeft om de waarheid neer te zetten."

Heroïsch
Waarom kiest een museum van het statuur als het Tropenmuseum ervoor om maar één kant van het Israëlisch-Palestijnse conflict te belichten? Lejo Schenk, directeur van het Tropenmuseum, wilde „het andere verhaal" vertellen, zo licht hij toe. „Het verhaal van de heroïsche totstandkoming van de staat Israël, van het land dat de woestijn vruchtbaar maakte, zit stevig op de harde schijf van ontzettend veel Nederlanders. Maar het andere verhaal, van Palestijnen die óók onderdeel van de wereldgeschiedenis zijn, is veel minder bekend. Dat verhaal wilden wij een keer een plaats geven."

Schenk ontkent dat het Tropenmuseum daarmee partij kiest. „Als mensen zich slachtoffer voelen en je geeft hen een podium, kies je dan partij? Dat is niets anders als wat kranten dagelijks doen." Wel kan hij leven met het etiket van eenzijdigheid, „als daarmee bedoeld wordt dat we exclusief het verhaal van de bejaarde Palestijnen laten zien. Dat is inderdaad een keuze. Die eenkennigheid zit erin."

Massa-executie
Met een trieste blik in haar ogen vertelt een oude vrouw, Kamleh Daher, op een film over de massa-executie in haar woonplaats Salha. Naftaniel knikt, ook met een trieste blik in de ogen. Hij kent de details. „In de moskee. Zestig tot tachtig doden, onderdeel van de in totaal 800 moedwillig door Israël vermoorde Palestijnen. Had nooit mogen gebeuren, natuurlijk niet."

Zo gaat het vaker tijdens het bezoek van Naftaniel aan het Tropenmuseum. Geëmotioneerde Palestijnen doen via de film hun verhaal, Naftaniel bladert in zijn boek en knikt. „Het klopt wel, maar er wordt niet bij gezegd dat…" Er wordt heel veel niet bij gezegd, zo blijkt. Niet dat de moefti van Jeruzalem en Palestijns leider voor 1948 pro-nazi was en met Hitler samenwerkte. Niet dat Arabische landen de oorlog van 1948 begonnen. En ook niet dat Joden in 1948 net zo goed verdreven zijn -uit Oost-Jeruzalem bijvoorbeeld- en dat hun synagoges werden verwoest.

Evenwichtig
Voor het maken van de tentoonstelling zocht het Tropenmuseum contact met diverse organisaties. Kaartmateriaal is onder meer beschikbaar gesteld door het Nederlands Palestina Komitee, dat onophoudelijk vecht voor de Palestijnse zaak in Nederland. „Maar we hebben niet veel invloed op de inhoud gehad", verzekert secretaris Kees Wagtendonk van het Komitee.

Hij noemt de tentoonstelling „evenwichtig" en „heel redelijk en gematigd." Wagtendonk ontkent ten stelligste dat het Tropenmuseum ook een andere kant had kunnen laten zien. „Er ís geen andere kant. Deze tentoonstelling gaat over de Palestijnen. Het is logisch onmogelijk om daarnaast een verhaal te zetten dat de helft onderuithaalt."

Zionistische visie
Dat de foto's en filmpjes in het Tropenmuseum ook na zestig jaar nog explosief materiaal vormen, komt doordat er „bijna geen woord en geen steen in deze geschiedenis niet ooit eens weersproken is", verklaart directeur Schenk van het Tropenmuseum. „Dat maakt de kwestie buitengewoon gecompliceerd."

De actualiteit maakt die complexiteit niet minder. Discussies naar aanleiding van de tentoonstelling gaan haast ongemerkt over in de vraag of Palestijnse vluchtelingen vandaag de dag het recht zouden moeten hebben om terug te keren naar Israël. „Dat kun je hoogstens toestaan voor de oude generatie die oorspronkelijk vertrokken is en waarvan nu nog enkele tienduizenden mensen in leven zijn", zegt Naftaniel van het CIDI. „Maar niet voor hun nageslacht. Dan zouden er 4 miljoen Palestijnen in Israël komen wonen. Dat is onmogelijk, al is er voor hen wat mij betreft wél ruimte in een toekomstige eigen staat."

Bij Kees Wagtendonk van het Palestina Komitee valt die opmerking verkeerd. „Terugkeer van het nageslacht geen optie? Dat is een zionistische visie op het geheel, en díé is geen optie. De hele Joodse staat is van meet af aan geen optie geweest, omdat een Joodse staat per definitie discrimineert. Hij bestaat alleen maar krachtens de gedwongen afwezigheid van de Palestijnen. Laat Israël hen niet terugkeren, dan leidt dat uiteindelijk tot een explosie die voor de staat Israël niet de goede afloop zal hebben."

Naftaniel draait het om. „Juist de eis van terugkeer van neven, nichten, kleinkinderen en noem maar op is een bom onder elk akkoord. Verwerkelijking van die eis zal niet tot de oplossing van het probleem leiden, omdat Palestijnen in Israël dan binnen de kortste keren in de meerderheid zullen zijn. En daar kan nooit en te nimmer sprake van zijn."