We have written before about the "Gang des barbares" which went on trial for brutally murdering Ilan Halimi, a Jewish Parisian young man, in 2006.
The trial was concluded, verdicts were passed out, and a new trial will begin.
This case has touched a raw nerve in France, exposing antisemitism and a strong under-current of violence and hatred in the largely Muslim immigrant community. It has also revealed a strong desire among les bien pensant to pretend none of this is real.All 27 members of the gang were sentenced in the case on Friday, but fourteen members of the self-proclaimed "Barbarians" gang will be retried in Paris. The office of the prosecutor agreed to ask the Court of Appeals to seek longer sentences than those originally handed out, after Justice Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie called some of the sentences too lenient.
Youssouf Fofana, the 28-year-old leader from Ivory Coast who describes himself as a hardline "Salafist" Islamist, was the only defendant convicted of murder. Fofana raised his fist and yelled "Alla hu akbar!" when he entered court at the start of the trial, gave his name during formal questioning as "Arabs African, Salafist revolt, barbarian army," occasionally smirked at Halimi's relatives and threw shoes at lawyers. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 22 years, the maximum penalty available in France.
Twenty-four accomplices were sentenced. Samir Aït Abdelmalek, 30, and Jean-Christophe Soumbou, 23, the two main accomplices, were sentenced to 18 and 15 years. The girl who, at the age of 17, lured 23-year-old Halimi to his death by inviting him on a date was sentenced to nine years. She took him to the gang who attacked him and subdued him with ether. But others received six-month suspended sentences for participating in the brutal crime, and two were acquitted altogether.
This case has touched a raw nerve in France, exposing antisemitism and a strong under-current of violence and hatred in the largely Muslim immigrant community. It has also revealed a strong desire among les bien pensant to pretend none of this is real.
The trial was closed to protect the accused who were minors when they participated in the crime. Yet it also raised tensions between French Jews and Muslims, even to outbreak of street brawls and other sporadic acts of violence between the two groups during the two-months of proceedings. Vociferous protests marked the verdicts and sentencing, with hundreds of demonstrators marching through Paris on Monday night, carrying portraits of Halimi and shouting, "Justice for Ilan!"
France has to face these issues, now, because it waited too long to admit the problems existed. Even now, its elites try to ignore the existence of these problems.
In the UNited States, we do not, yet, have the same situation. The root elements do exist.
What will it take for us to face up to them?
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Halimi Murder Trial Ends and Begins Anew
Labels:
Anti-Semitism,
Eurabia,
Justice,
Terror
Monday, July 13, 2009
Hate Mail from the Phelps Clan
I usually ignore the hate mail I get because there is no value in sharing it. Dear Crabby Christopher – Your blog of Friday June 19 was telling. You have the News Release scanned – so clearly you know what it said. But you pretend you are not clear about what we are doing. You look to the liars among you to try and fix the trauma that you see coming down the road for you. Here – wrap your rebel mind around this excellent music video – it might help. http://www.signmovies.net/videos/music/index.html We also have another music video coming out shortly, but right now it is only an MP3 file because we just got it recorded – you might like it – I' ll give you an advance copy of the music – the sound track, don ' t you know J Free – all this Word of God is FREE – it is the Bread of Life, the Fountain of Living Waters, and it is ALL FREE!! YAY!! <<...>> The Lord is coming Christopher the Joo. Do you think you will get a pass because yo u call Abraham your father? For Zion ' s sake you will not be silent about what? You ' re clueless, so what do you think that you are not keeping silent about? If you are not telling your fellow Jews what we are telling them, you have NOTHING TO TELL THEM!! YIKES!! You never bothered to read the words of your own prophets. We have made these last hours of the very last days of all abundantly easy for you Jews. You can go to www.jewskilledjesus.com and you can read and listen – I mean – we have drilled this down so that a blind man could not miss it. The short Christopher is that if God does not give you a heart to know him, like he gave little Daniel, you will NEVER pray like Daniel 9 and you will NEVER have the capacity to see your horrible state. Worse than that, the Beast, Obama the Antichrist will slip on past you so fast that when his knife goes between your 4 th and 5 th ribs, you won ' t even know it happened till you are on your way to the ground. Of course, at that point, it will be TOOOOOOOOO late!! We will do our duty and we will look for the good figs – and we will filter out the filthy and vile figs and we will help those little Jews that have broken and contrite hearts and that are ready to serve the Living God IN TRUTH!! They will need help Christopher because you ignorant freaks lie to each other every day and you REFUSE to do your duty to God or to each other and that Christopher the Jew – truly sucks! Thanks for caring and sharing, God will require all your lying nonsense at your hand in the Great and Terrible Day of Judgment!! Your Best Friend, Shirley Phelps-Roper 7/13/09
However, the following is from Shirley L Phelps-Roper - one of the infamous Phelps Clan - in response to a post I wrote on June 19 called Haters. (I wonder if she also caught my post on the twenty-third.) She calls herself my "Best Friend," but I don't think she means it.
I am presenting it here only because I can put it under the jump. You will have to click to see it.
There is no particularly good reason for you to do so.
I am not going to comment on her screed, because we try not to pay undue honor to hate mail.
Please note that she has spelled out certain words, unlike our practice of showing respect to the names and titles of the Master of the Universe.
Forwarded message
From: Shirley L Phelps-Roper <slpr@cox.net>
Date: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 4:45 PM
Subject: Is your hatred of God blinding your eyes, stopping up your ears and making your heart FAT? BP
To: Christopher@forzionssake.net
Finished reading? Wished you had not bothered? Feel like you need a little something to cleanse your palate? Well, consider this.
The subject line of the message references a fat heart. Those who follow the show will know that a few years ago I did, indeed, have some difficulties with my heart. It has nothing to do with fat, but years in Africa with parasites and the medications expected to fight them. Furthermore, though you may not be able to see it on the radio, I certainly am not what you would called "slim".
However, I am not worried, because of Proverbs 11:25:The generous soul shall be made fat: and he that waters shall be watered also himself.
I would rather be a generous soul than appreciated by the servants of a false god of hate.
Labels:
Anti-Semitism
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Palestinians among harsh critics od US
A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll finds that US foreign policy continues to receive heavy criticism around the world, even though in 13 of 19 nations most people say they have confidence in President Obama to do the right thing in international affairs.
The Palestinians are among the most critical.
The Palestinians have the largest majority lacking confidence in Barack Obama to do the right thing in world affairs and are among the largest majorities that say the US abuses its greater power to get them to do what it wants. While a majority sees the US as hypocritical for promoting international laws but not following them itself, fewer hold this view than in the previous year and a significant number agree that the US does set a good example by following these laws.
Israel was not among the countries polled, but we have spoken about Israel's diminished trust in the Obama administration given the increased pressure on Israel to acquiesce to its own destruction.
Despite the Administration's increase of pressure on Israel, the Palestinians are not responding favorably to America.
Labels:
By the Numbers,
Palestinian Authority
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Bulletin of the Oppression of Women
The following is produced by www.politicalislam.com
Publisher: Bill Warner ; Editor: Asma Marwan
Bulletin of the Oppression of Women July 11, 2009
Asia
June 28, 2009
Thailand
A female Buddhist teacher was shot dead by suspected insurgents in Thailand's restive Muslim south.
June 29, 2009
Bangladesh, India
A widow and a man were whipped following a fatwa issued by a religious leader for their alleged involvement in "anti-social activity".
July 9, 2009
Bangladesh
Six Muslim men abduct and gang-rape a 13 year-old in a room of a hospital.
Middle East
June 29, 2009
Pakistan
Relatives of a Pakistani teenager who eloped and married without parental consent shot her dead in a raid of her new home which also killed her husband and in-laws.
June 29, 2009
Bahrain
Similar to almost all Arab and Islamic countries, Bahrain offers women no protection from sexually abusive husbands.
June 29, 2009
Pakistan
Father exchanges eight-year-old daughter for a second bride.
July 2, 2009
Pakistan
Father of thirteen-year-old gang rape victim testifies. He states that his daughter was raped to damage his honor.
July 2, 2009
Pakistan
A fifteen-year-old girl leaps from a balcony after refusing an arranged marriage.
July 3, 2009
Kuwait
A woman is kidnapped, raped and sold into prostitution by a police officer. A huge prostitution ring is busted and 64 Asian women are rescued.
July 4, 2009
Israel
A Palestinian female journalist stated that Hamas policemen attempted to arrest her on the pretext that she was immodestly dressed at a Gaza beach and was seen laughing loudly in public.
July 6, 2009
Kuwait
Testimony is heard in a case filed against a man charged with the premeditated murder of his wife and mother-in-law.
July 6, 2009
Pakistan
Pakistani city sees 121 cases of women burned from April to June of this year.
July 7, 2009
Jeddah, SaudiArabia
28-year-old woman is sent to jail for disobeying her father. She flees while the police are waiting to take her to jail.
July 7, 2009
Iran
Two detained women are "in danger of being forgotten" amid concerns that they may face execution.
July 8, 2009
Afghanistan
The UN takes notice of women's rights in Afghanistan.
July 9, 2009
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia and why child marriage is allowed.
Europe
June 30, 2009
Sweden
The stabbing in Iraq of a local female Swedish politician has prompted an investigation into whether or not the attack was paid for by the woman's relatives back in Sweden.
July 3, 2009
Bosnia
Brothers are convicted of violence against their sister.
July 4, 2009
Germany
A 32 year old woman stabbed in a court before she could testify against her attacker.
July 4, 2009
Denmark
A fourteen-year-old girl is chased by seven men and subjected to attempted rape.
July 4, 2009
UK
How Islam is dispensing justice through Sharia law in the UK. A woman's "duties lie with the cleaning and childcare."
July 5, 2009
UK
A doctor, who was abducted, drugged and held captive by her family in Bangladesh last year in order to get her to marry a complete stranger, speaks out for the first time.
July 7, 2009
Sweden
28-year-old's fall from a balcony is a suspected honor killing.
Australia
June 29, 2009
Brisbane
Racy photos prompt man to stab his stepdaughter. He is sentenced to twelve years behind bars and will be deported to Egypt upon his release.
Labels:
Women
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Bulletin of Jew Hatred July 9, 2009
This Bulletin of Jew Hatred is produced by www.politicalislam.com
Publisher: Bill Warner ; Editor: Kendra M
Permalink
Bulletin of Jew Hatred - July 9, 2009
Facts without comments - we collect the dots, you connect them
Please distribute this bulletin and send us events that you find.
Summaries:
North and South America/
June, 2009
United States
The book, Cartoons and Extremism: Israel and the Jews in Arab and Western Media , compiles decades of anti-Semitic Arab and Muslim editorial cartoons featured in Arabic-language newspapers.
Related: Slideshow of cartoons (may or may not be from book) here.
June 23, 2009
United States
A U.S. organization has been receiving money from (perhaps) unsuspecting Jewish donors to support blatantly anti-Israel groups.
June 24, 2009
Ecuador
Anti-semitic graffiti painted outside Ecuador Foreign Ministry has not been removed for over two weeks.
June 24, 2009
Toronto, Canada
B'nai Brith Canada has denounced this week's conference at York University as part of the ongoing anti-Israel parade on campus. York University has been in the news several times regarding anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist activities.
June 25, 2009
Santa Barbara, CA
A professor at a California university was cleared of alleged faculty misconduct for sending an e-mail to students comparing Israel's policies in Gaza to the Nazis.
June 28, 2009
New York, NY
Two teens were arrested for terrorizing Jewish residents in the Lower East Side in what was called an "Anti-Semitic Spree".
July 1, 2009
United States
Seven Reasons for Leftist Anti-Semitism is an interesting opinion piece by Don Feder.
July 3, 2009
United States
Although Jews voted overwhelmingly for Obama, many of them have voters' remorse, according to Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz is still hopeful that Obama will follow through on his promise to support Jews' interests. See July 6 refutation of this opinion piece below.
July 4, 2009
Mineola, NY
Two large bright orange swastikas were painted on Congregation Beth Shalom Chabad's front doors.
July 6, 2009
United States
Melanie Phillips refutes Alan Dershowitz' op-ed piece about Obama (above) in this very strong criticism.
Middle East
June 12, 2009
Samaria
Palestinian Authority media outlets continue to blame Israel for problems caused by wild boars in Samaria, despite Israeli efforts to cull the animals. Thursday, PA farmers near Ariel complained that "Israeli settlers" had engineered a wild boar attack that destroyed agricultural produce.
June 17, 2009
Israel
In an increasingly bitter legal dispute, the Company for Restitution of Holocaust Victims' Assets will file a 305 million dollar lawsuit against Bank Leumi next week over assets that belong to Holocaust victims and their heirs.
June 27, 2009
Jerusalem, Israel
Chief Palestinian delegate to the Arab League Ambassador Mohamed Sobeih in a statement to reporters in Cairo said that the Wailing Wall is an integral part of the Al-Aqsa mosque, which is' a place for Muslims and sincere part of the doctrine of one and a half billion Muslims in the world'. He said it became the Jews' Wailing Wall after the occupation and control by force of arms.
June 28, 2009
Jerusalem, Israel
The Obama administration told the Palestinian Authority that the "golden era" of Israeli construction in sections of Jerusalem and the West End will soon end.
July 1, 2009
Israel
Video discusses the Jewish origins of many Palestinian people. Some still practice their Judaism in secret.
More here.
July 2, 2009
Homesh, West Bank
Palestinians defaced and burned dozens of Talmuds, bibles, and prayer books at a yeshiva located on the grounds of the evacuated West Bank settlement of Homesh.
Europe
June, 2009
Serbia and Hungary
Ultra nationalist vandals have been spray painting "666" and Stars of David. These symbols are intended to draw a link between NATO and Jews.
June 8, 2009
France
New movie, "Being Jewish in France", discusses anti-semitism in France.
June 25, 2009
London, England
A Jewish school has been found guilty of race discrimination in a landmark decision in London.
June 26. 2009
France, EU
The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights released its annual report this month. The report covers racism, discrimination, and related crime trends.(pdf linked)
June 29, 2009
Prague, Czech Republic
Vandals desecrated 63 tombs in a Jewish cemetery. Tombstones were broken and toppled and caused an estimated $27,000 in damages.
June 30, 2009
Lausanne, Switzerland
The bones of murdered Jews are being sold to medical students from a World War II mass grave, a private investigation suggests.
July 2, 2009
Panasesti, Republic of Moldova
A leading Moldovian community rabbi and his students were the victims of an anti-Semitic gang-style attack by a group of 8 to 10 teens and young adults.
July 3, 2009
Spain
The American Jewish Committee condemned the Spanish newspaper El Pais for publishing a blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon accusing Jews of using their financial power to enable Israel to "violate...all human and international laws."
July 7, 2009
Berlin, Germany
Bernie Ecclestone, chief of Formula 1, apologized for positive remarks he made about Hitler (he had said Hitler would have "gotten things done"). However, on July 6, he said about those calling for his resignation,"it's a pity they didn't sort the banks out." When asked to elaborate, Ecclestone said, "They have a lot of influence everywhere." More here.
July 8, 2009
Berlin, Germany
A German court has ruled that Nazi SS officer Heinrich Boere, 88, is fit to face trial. Recently, the court also ruled that former Nazi guard John Demjanjuk, 89, is also fit to face trial for his crimes.
July/August 2009
Paris, France
Whenever Muslim youths are concerned, French authorities walk on eggshells for fear of igniting mass revolt. Regarding Ilan Halimi, Nidra Poller states, we are "left with the troubling impression that the more this evil of Jew-hatred eats into the tissue of French society, the more it will be shrouded in artificial doubts and fabricated subtleties."
Asia
June 24, 2009
Siberia, Russia
A swastika was painted on the doors of a Jewish Community Center in Siberia, Russia.
July 1, 2009
Turkey
Turkey's Jewish community reaches out to its Muslim neighbors in face of rising anti-Semitism.
Australia
July 4, 2009
Queensland, Australia
At least one citizen was disgusted that he had been targeted with racist neo-Nazi propaganda material. Chris Townley was outraged when a personally addressed envelope containing "Neo-Nazi anti-Semitic ranting" was delivered to his home this week.
July 8, 2009
Sydney, Australia
A group of Jewish lawyers has urged a United Nations committee not to submit to the "lynch mob mentality towards Israel."
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Labels:
Anti-Semitism
UCI's News Summaries
Jerry forwarded the following "all important stuff" from Unity Coalition for Israel:
Your Link to Israel
A Rift Between the U.S. and Israel: Is Obama Hurting An Important Relationship? Click to view PajamasTV video - 11:47 minutes
"CHAZAK AMENU: WE STAND AS ONE" This Inspirational 2-CD set, featuring our new theme song, includes: * OVER 50 JEWISH MUSIC ARTISTS * MORE THAN 30 SONGS * "SHIR LISMOACH (MALKI`S SONG)," ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY!!!
Mosque or Mask (1 of 4)
"I`m Shipping Up to Boston" Click to view Florida Security Council video
9 minutes
Joshua Muravchik
Commentary Magazine, July 01, 2009
This tradition has been ruptured by the Obama administration. The new president signaled his intent on the eve of his inauguration, when he told editors of the Washington Post that democracy was less important than "freedom from want and freedom from fear. If people aren't secure, if people are starving, then elections may or may not address those issues, but they are not a perfect overlay."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed suit, in opening testimony at her Senate confirmation hearings. As summed up by the Post's Fred Hiatt, Clinton "invoked just about every conceivable goal but democracy promotion. Building alliances, fighting terror, stopping disease, promoting women's rights, nurturing prosperity—but hardly a peep about elections, human rights, freedom, liberty or self-rule."...
http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=4269
Muslim Brotherhood
Atlas shrugs, July 01, 2009
Since that time information about this document, known in counterterrorism circles as "The Project , and discussion regarding its content has been limited to the top-secret world of Western intelligence communities. Only through the work of an intrepid Swiss journalist, Sylvain Besson of Le Temps, and his book published in October 2005 in France, La conquête de l`Occident: Le projet secret des Islamistes (The Conquest of the West: The Islamists` Secret Project), has information regarding The Project finally been made public. One Western official cited by Besson has described The Project as "a totalitarian ideology of infiltration which represents, in the end, the greatest danger for European societies."
[...]
http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=4270
Sara A. Carter (Contact)
Washington Times, July 02, 2009
=0 A
A Pakistani official, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the topic, said the going price for child bombers was $7,000 to $14,000 - huge sums in Pakistan, where per-capita income is about $2,600 a year.
"[Mehsud] has turned suicide bombing into a production output, not unlike [the way] Toyota outputs cars," a U.S. Defense Department official told reporters recently. He spoke on the condition that he not be named because of ongoing intelligence efforts to catch Mehsud, a prime target for a U.S. and Pakistani anti-Taliban campaign.
An apparent U.S. effort to kill Mehsud last week failed. On Sunday, the Pakistani government offered a reward of about $615,300 for information leading to the capture of Mehsud, dead or alive. The U.S. State Department has offered a bounty of $5 million for Mehsud, who is thought to be hiding in the tribal areas near the Afghan border....
http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=4271
Aryn Baker
KABUL , July 05, 2009 
Marines take cover on July 3, 2009, as a 500-lb. bomb explodes on a compound after the troops took two days of enemy fire from the position in Main Poshteh, Afghanistan
Joe Raedle / Getty
So far, so good in the first major offensive of President Barack Obama`s war in Afghanistan. For the past four days, 4,000 U.S. Marines and 650 Afghan soldiers have been fighting their way into the southern reaches of Afghanistan`s Helmand River valley, hoping to clear out insurgents there. But other than in one limited area of fierce resistance, the fighting has generally been restricted to small-scale skirmishes in which few Taliban have been killed because most of the insurgents appear to have slipped away — as guerrillas tend to do when confronted by overwhelming firepower. More important to U.S. goals, however, is that no civilians have been hurt, since the purpose of the operation is to secure the local population against the Taliban.
Even though he says it`s too early to predict success, General Stanley McChrystal, the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, is satisfied that the Helmand mission is moving in the right direction. "The operations are not aimed at the enemy force. They are aimed at taking away the population from the enemy," he told TIME. "What we are trying to do is change the dynamics in the area where we are oper ating." In order to do that, Marines are leaving their armored humvees and sitting down with village elders and tribal leaders to assess their needs, and assuring them that this time the Americans will be sticking around. (See pictures of the new U.S. offensive.)...
http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=4272
Salaah jum`ah
IMRA, July 02, 2009
The source added that the intensive three-day meetings between the Fatah and Hamas movements which ended in Cairo yesterday under Egyptian sponsorship discussed all the pending issues since the previous rounds and also the probl em of the detainees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It said these intensive Fatah-Hamas talks reached agreement on the following issues:
1. To form a joint security force in the Gaza Strip that starts its work immediately after the signing of the reconciliation agreement.
2. To form a joint committee from all the factions to coordinate and supervise the implementation of the reconciliation agreement. The committee has specific tasks and starts its work following the signing of the agreement and ends it immediately after holding the presidential and legislative elections.
3. To define general principles for solving the problem of the detainees from the Fatah and Hamas movements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip so as to help prepare the atmospheres for achieving the reconciliation and accord....
http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=4273
Manhigut Yehudit
Press Release, July 05, 2009
Manhigut Yehudit President Moshe Feiglin points out that Netanyahu was elected with the votes of the national camp that favors a "one-state" proposal - and this state remaining Jewish. As 65 out of 109 seats in the Knesset are parties on the right wing of the political spectrum, it can be surmised that approximately 60% of the Jewish citizens of Israel actually oppose Bibi`s giveaway.
Bibi's proposal does not reflect national consensus, but rather hijacks the votes of the national camp and applies them to leftist policies.
http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=4274
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Labels:
Zionism for Christians' Sake
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Ignoring Ideology
Benny Morris takes a new look at the history of Palestinian refusal to actually accept Israel as a Jewish state in the heart of the Muslim Middle East.
Morris is Professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be'er Sheva, Israel.
He is a key member of the "New Historians" (Hebrew: ההיסטוריונים החדשים, HaHistorionim HaHadashim). This is a loosely-defined group of Israeli historians who have challenged traditional Israeli assumptions about Israeli history, including Israel's role in the Palestinian Exodus in 1948 and Arab willingness to discuss peace with Israel.
Morris is one of the few New Historians respected even by the "Old Historians" who lived through the events of 1948. Part of this is because he accepts the reality that Israel and Arab countries each have their own share of responsibility for the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Palestinian plight, as opposed to some who simply want to blame Israel.
This is why his latest book is so fascinating. One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict takes a sharp look at the history of the goals of the Palestinian national movement and the Zionist movement. It considers the various one- and two-state proposals made by different streams within the two movements and looks at the willingness or unwillingness of each movement to find a compromise.
Excerpts are available in pdf from Yale Press.The precipitants to this newfound candor about the desirability, or at least the inevitability, of a single state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River (and often the assertion of "inevitability" is mere camouflage for the propagation of its "desirability") are three: PLO chairman Yasser Arafat's rejection of the two-state solution proposed in July and again in December 2000 by Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and US president Bill Clinton, his rejection providing political impetus and cover for the in-principle subversion of two-statism; the rise of the openly rejectionist, one-statist Hamas to primacy in Palestinian Arab politics, as epitomized in the movement's general election victory of January 2006 and its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007; and, last, the recent advocacy of a one-state solution by a coterie of non-Arab Western intellectuals, spearheaded by Tony Judt, a distinguished professor of modern European history at New York University, against the backdrop of the Second Intifada and, more pertinently, the Islamic world's assault on the West, epitomized by 9/11 (and stretching, geographically, from the southern Philippines and southern Thailand through India, Afghanistan, and the Middle East to Madrid and London).
Morris quotes Omer Bartov, a historian of Israeli origin at Brown University, who wrote that "the binational model for Israel/Palestine is 'absurd' because neither Israeli Jews nor Palestinian Arabs want it. Both groups seek to live in a country inhabited and governed by their own."
"In any event, according to Bartov, the binational model for Israel/Palestine is 'absurd' because neither Israeli Jews nor Palestinian Arabs want it. Both groups seek to live in a country inhabited and governed by their own." - Benny Morris, ONE STATE, TWO STATES: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict (Yale University Press) Jeffrey Goldberg reviewed the book for the New York Times and complains that Morris "has an almost irretrievably dark vision of Israel's future as a Jewish-majority state."Morris's gloom sometimes leads him to inflammatory conclusions. He recently suggested to an Israeli journalist that perhaps Ben-Gurion "should have done a complete job" of removing Arabs from the land that became Israel. "If he had carried out a full expulsion — rather than a partial one — he would have stabilized the State of Israel for generations," Morris explained.
For Morris, repeated Palestinian rejections and the increasing violence that followed them confirm that there is nothing Israel could do to make Arab Muslims agree to its existence as a Jewish state.
In "One State, Two States," he argues that this most enduring of conflicts is primarily cultural, not political. Between Arabs and Israelis, "the value placed on human life and the rule of (secular) law is completely different," he writes, "as exhibited, in Israel itself, in the vast hiatus between Jewish and Arab perpetration of crimes and lethal road traffic violations." But might the differences also be explained by higher rates of poverty among Arab Israelis?
Jeff Robbins, former United States Delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva during the Clinton Administration, reviewed the book for the Wall Street Journal and came to a disturbing conclusion about the Administration's distancing of itself from Israel.The refusal of Palestinian politicians, academics and clerics to stipulate that they accept a permanent Jewish state existing next to a Palestinian state is, of course, at once a dirty little secret and the 800 pound gorilla in the room when it comes to the debate over the Palestinian-Israeli conflict...
His conclusion:
Morris rather elegantly characterizes the bobbing and weaving of Palestinian spokespeople who profess moderation while continuing to reject Israel's right to exist as "elisions, disingenuousness and vagueness." It might be described less gently as mendacity. Nevertheless, the line that it is Israeli settlements that are the problem, and Prime Minister Netanyahu's reluctance to remove them that is the fundamental impediment to peace, has attained a certain gospel-like adherence in certain quarters and, increasingly, among Democrats. As Dennis Ross and David Makovsky write with understatement in their own new book, "Myths, Illusions and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East," "those on the left... tend to dismiss ideological opposition to Israel's existence." [Link added]The Administration's purposeful distancing of itself from Israel is likely to empower those who have always believed, and who continue to believe, that in the fullness of time, American support for Israel can be degraded, and with it Israel's ability to survive.
Those who insist that Israel is purely to blame for the failure of the process are not merely blind to Israel's danger. They are gambling with the fate of civilization.
The same fanatics who will not accept the existence of a Jewish state in Israel will reject the existence of secular democracies in Europe, Asia, or America.
We cannot afford to simply ignore ideological opposition because we do not know how to deal with it.
Labels:
Peace by Pieces
Debunking Linkage
One of the most enduring myths of foreign affairs is the myth of linkage: the idea that all the other Middle East conflicts are linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that resolving the fate of Palestinians would completely clear up Middle East politics.
Longtime Middle Eastern diplomatic negotiator Dennis Ross and journalist David Makovsky have written Myths, Illusions, and Peace to confront this myth - and others - that are handicapping US policy makers.
An excerpt is available from the New York Times:Of all the policy myths that have kept us from making real progress in the Middle East, one stands out for its impact and longevity: the idea that if only the Palestinian conflict were solved, all the other Middle East conflicts would melt away. This is the argument of “linkage.” Neoconservatives have always rejected it, given their skepticism about Arab intentions and their related belief that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be resolved. While realists have been the most determined purveyors, this myth transcends all others and has had amazing staying power here, internationally, and in the Middle East. In fact, few ideas have been as consistently and forcefully promoted – by laymen, policymakers, and leaders alike.
After several examples, the authors note the elephant in the souk: "The major problem with this premise is that it is not true."
Makovsky is The Washington Institute's Ziegler distinguished fellow and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process. On June 17, 2009, he addressed a special Policy Forum at The Washington Institute to mark the book's publication, and had this to say:This book also seeks to debunk the idea of linkage, which declares that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will solve all Middle East conflicts. Ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, Arab states have linked their relationships with the United States to how Washington deals with the Palestine question -- and later the state of Israel. Yet, with some notable exceptions, Arab states have largely aligned their policies with the United States based on their own national interests rather than on professed regional concerns. Even during one of the few times that the Arab states acted on this linkage -- the Arab oil embargo in the mid-1970s -- they lifted it within a few months due to inter-Arab rivalries and their desire to have close relations with Washington.
"The issues of security and settlements must be decoupled."
The United States should engage in peace efforts because resolving the conflict is desirable in and of itself and would marginalize and diminish the appeal of extremists who exploit this emotional issue. In approaching the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, neither a pure top-down or bottom-up approach is possible. The top-down approach assumes that all core issues can be solved immediately, but since some of them are currently intractable, this approach will not work. The bottom-up approach, which focuses on creating economic and security institutions and deepening Palestinian security cooperation with Israel, is important, but it cannot succeed on its own if the Palestinians think Israel is just buying time to expand settlements at their expense. This issue needs to be addressed or it will undermine the Palestinian Authority and benefit Hamas. The best way to deal with settlements is to render them moot by moving forward and demarcating a border between Israel and the future Palestinian state. Therefore, negotiations should begin with a focus on land; while it is not a simple issue, progress in this area is realistic.
Ross and Makovsky contend that in order for the US to broker peace in the Middle East, it must first cease operating from ideological assumptions and see the world as it is. There are many comforting myths which will have to be given up by foreign policy wonks, inside and outside the Administration.
As the Times' book review demonstrates, this is not something easy to do:If not explicitly announced as such, “Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East” reads very much like a foreign-policy blueprint for the region for a new administration. And yet so much has happened in the presumably brief interval since the authors completed their manuscript that much of the text and many of its prescriptions seem surpassed by events.
"The authors' formulation," writes Howard W. French, "Attempts to debunk the notion that resolving the Palestinian question could pay dramatic dividends elsewhere, whether in dealing with Iran's rising power and influence in the region or in defusing rage around the issue that ostensibly fuels Islamic radicalism more broadly."
Here is the trap that those who cling to such cherished myths fall into. At the core of most myths is at least a seed of truth. This does not, however, mean the myth itself is true.
"Since the origins of so many regional tensions and rivalries are not connected to the Arab-Israeli conflict, it is hard to see how resolving it would unlock other regional stalemates or sources of instability." Myths, Illusions, & Peace: Finding a New Direction For America In The Middle East, by Dennis Ross and David Makovsky (Viking Press) There is no doubt that resolving "the Palestinian question" would have significant effects throughout the region and the world, but it would not stop the Ayatollahs from oppressing the people of Iran, it would not stop Syria's interference in Lebanon, it would not cause Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to grant basic freedoms to his people, and it would not cause the Taleban to leave Pakistan alone or al Qaeda to reduce its efforts to terrorize the world.
"I emphasize that the Palestinian question, of course, is the core of problems and conflict in the Middle East, and it is the entry to contain the crisis and tension in the region, and the best means to face what's going on in the world, our region – I mean by that, the escalation of violence, extremism and terrorism," says Mubarak. He is wrong.
"I keep saying Palestine is the core," says King Abdullah of Jordan. "It is linked to the extent of what's going on in Iraq. It is linked to what's going on in Lebanon." It is not.
"A Vigorously renewed effort to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict could fundamentally change both the dynamics in the region and the strategic calculus of key leaders," declares Brent Scowcroft. Since Snowcroft served as the United States National Security Advisor under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush, and as Military Assistant to President Richard Nixon and as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs in the Nixon and Ford administrations, and as Chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005, and also assisted President Barack Obama in choosing his national security team, it is assumed that he has a foundation for such statements. He does not.
Ross and Makovsky put it simply: "Since the origins of so many regional tensions and rivalries are not connected to the Arab-Israeli conflict, it is hard to see how resolving it would unlock other regional stalemates or sources of instability."
A second myth they wish to disprove is that there is no pressing need for American involvement in the Palestinian-Israeli peace effort. The third is the belief that, while it made sense for us to aid the Israelis when their Arab opponents were allied with the Soviets, now that the Soviets are gone we should distance ourselves from Israel.
Ross is currently serving on the National Security Council staff as a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the "Central Region" with overall responsibility for the region including the Middle East, the Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Asia.
The president listens to Dennis Ross. The Israelis and Palestinians listen to him. So should we.
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Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Abu Mazen: Arab Refugees Left on Our Own
Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas -who prefers to go by his terrorist name, Abu Mazen - has admitted the Arabs of the Galilee city of Tzfat left in 1948 not because they were driven out, but on their own volition.
They fled because they were afraid the Jews might take revenge for the slaughter of 20 Jews in the city during the Arab pogroms of 19 years earlier.
Tzfat (Hebrew: צְפַת, Tzfat; Arabic: صفد, Ṣafad) is also called Safed in English.
Most biographies of Abu Mazen state his family became "refugees" because of the War of Independence in 1948, giving the impression the Abbas family was driven out by Israel and became homeless.
"They felt that the balance of power had collapsed and they therefore decided to leave." - Abu Mazen explaining why the Arabs left Tzfat in 1948However, speaking with Al-Palestinia TV on Monday, the co-founder of Fatah admitted that his family and others from Tzfat were not expelled or driven out, but rather left on their own, for fear that the Jews might actually take revenge for Arab pogroms.
Arutz 7 reports the words of Abu Mazen:I am among those who were born in the city of Tzfat (Safed). We were a family of means. I studied in elementary school, and then came the naqba [calamity, namely, the founding of the State of Israel – ed. At night, we left by foot from Tzfat, to the Jordan River, where we remained for a month. Then we went to Damascus, and then to our relatives in Jordan, and then we settled in Damascus...
The "rebellion" Abbas referred to was a series of brutal Arab attacks on Jewish towns in the summer of 1929. Nearly 70 Jews were slaughtered in their homes in Hevron, 20 in Tzfat, 17 in Jerusalem, and others were murdered in Motza, Kfar Uriah and Tel Aviv.
The people's basic motives brought them to run away for their lives and with their property. These [motive were very important, for they feared the violence of the Zionist terrorist organizations – and especially those of us from Tzfat felt that there was an old desire for revenge from the rebellion of 1929, and this was in the memory of our families and parents.
The memory of the massacre, Abbas said, "brought [our families] to understand that the military balance had changed, and that [we] no longer had military forces in their real meaning. There were only young people who fought, and there was an initial action. They felt that the balance of power had collapsed and they therefore decided to leave. The entire city was abandoned based on this thought – the thought of their property and saving themselves."
It is notable that the Abbas family moved back to Damascus, as that is likely the place where it had originated less than 90 years earlier. Joan Peters – in a book we have often recommended: From Time Immemorial – writes that in 1860, "Algerian tribes moved from Damascus en masse to Safed." She notes that the Muslims in the city were mostly descended from Moorish settlers and from Kurds.
Abu Mazen has had many homes since he fled Tzfat:
But Abu Mazen's involvement with Tzfat did not end in 1948.
On the 26th anniversary of Israel independence, May 15, 1974, three members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine(DFLP), a faction of the PLO, sneaked into Israel dressed in Israel Defense Force uniforms. There they carried out a massacre in Ma'alot.
They took 102 Israeli Jewish school children on a school trip from Tzfat were taken hostage while sleeping in a school in Maalot. The students were forced to sit on the floor at gunpoint, with explosive charges between them, their wrists and ankles tightly bound.
Before reaching the school, the trio shot and killed two Arab women, a Jewish man, his pregnant wife, and their 4 year old son, and wounded several others. In the final battle, as the IDF fought to rescue the hostages, the terrorists murdered 22 Israeli high school students, aged 14–16, mostly with grenades and sprayed machine gun fire.
One of the survivors of the Ma'alot massacre, Yishai Maimon, was the liaison in negotiations between terrorists and defense forces, and later became the mayor of Tzfat.
Recalling the brutal murders of school children, Maimon said, "I was a student in the 11th grade and my brother was in the 10th grade class. There was a warning that a terrorist gang was circulating in the area, causing us to sleep in the Nativ Meir school in Maalot. No one thought that the gang infiltrating into Israel also would get [to the school] and cold bloodedly murder 22 school children."
"I still hear the echo of gunshots and screams of my friends," Maimon recounted.
Reportedly, the man behind the plot was Abu Mazen, the man who controlled the money for PLO "activities".
"Abu Mazen is responsible for sending the terrorists to commit the murders in Maalot. I will block his entry" into Safed, Maimon asserted. "The man is a murderer with Jewish blood on his hands and hides under the disguise of a peddler of peace. It is important that the people of Israel know with whom we want to make peace. He is worse than Arafat."
Abu Mazen has tried repeatedly to return to Tzfat, but successive mayors and demonstrations have denied him the opportunity, usually in remembrance of the massacre.
Yossi Klein explains the Israeli phrase "Safed Legend":
A Safed legend is born of the wind and is carried for years on its wings. In time it becomes covered with the dust that rises from the shabby alleys and becomes like them, elusive and secretive.There are many Safed legends.
The flight of Arab refugees is one. The terror Arabs inflicted on Israel is not.
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Zionism for Palestinians' Sake
SWC World News Round-Up
The Simon Wiesenthal Center World News Round-Up for July 7, 2009.
Buying Children as Young as 7 Years Old for $7,000 - $14,000 To Serve as Suicide Bombers Protested to UN Agencies
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"Zionists, out of our country"... "Star of David = Swastika": Synagogue Desecrated Again in Venezuela
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Military Wing of Extreme-Right Hungarian Guard Group Disbanded for Hate, Incitement, and Creating a "Climate of Fear"
more...
Amnesty International's View of the Middle East Conflict: One-Sided Attack on Israel for its Action Against Hamas Empowers Tyrants and Punishes Democracies
more...
"Israeli Embassy out of the Country" Ecuador's Foreign Ministry Urged to Remove Weeks-Old Anti-Semitic Graffiti at Ministry Building
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"Could YouTube™ have Stopped Hitler?"
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"Jew me, sue me, kick me, kike me..." original Michael Jackson song lyrics changed following SWC protest; apology letter on view in Los Angeles with related story: Michael Jackson: The SWC Museum of Tolerance's First Visitor more...
France and Ireland's Role in Compensating Holocaust Victims and their Heirs During the Nazi Era Addressed by SWC at "Holocaust Era Assets Conference"
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British Colonel Declares the IDF Did More to Safeguard Civilians than Any Other Army
The following is from: Middle East Strategic Information.
Col. Richard Kemp, Former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, talked about the extraordinary lengths the IDF took to prevent civilian casualties during the recent conflict in Gaza.
To watch the testimony, please click here.
To read the full speech by Col. Kemp titled "International Law and Military Operations in Practice", please click here.
Col. Kemp notes that the age-old confusions and complexities of war are made worse by the fighting policies and techniques of the enemy in the type of conflict that the Israeli Defense Forces recently fought in Gaza and in Lebanon, and Britain and America are still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.Do these Islamist fighting groups ignore the international laws of armed conflict? They do not. It would be a grave mistake to conclude that they do. Instead, they study it carefully and they understand it well.
This is why the British papers or American media may decry the IDF, but the militaries of most Western nations study them. The IDF deals with the same challenges that every other government faced with Islamist insurgency, plus one more:
They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses.
Their very modus operandi is built on the, correct, assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules.
It is not simply that these insurgents do not adhere to the laws of war. It is that they employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. Their entire operational doctrine is founded on this basis.It is the automatic, pavlovian presumption by many in the international media, and international human rights groups, that the IDF are in the wrong, that they are abusing human rights.
Col. Kemp declares "the IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other Army in the history of warfare." He then notes the IDF still did not win the war of opinions – especially in Europe.
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The Middle East Strategic Information Analysis is a project of the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs
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