Posts with the tag Middle East

The real solution of Middle-East tragic conflicts!

Avraham — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:34:27 EST

With the help of G-d,
Dear Honorable President of the United States of America,
Mr. Barack H. Obama,
My name is Avraham,I am a Jewish resident in Palestine,
I am Georgian citizen too,
I ask from you do not be deceived by the Zionists,The Zionists want to conceal their war crimes against Palestinian people around Palestine, but they will be not succeeding.There was Genocide on Gaza between end of December 2008 to January 2009!!
Do not fear from the Zionists and the massive pressure of the Zionist lobby.Show solidarity with the Palestinian people whom persecuted and oppressed and subjugated by the Israeli regime more than 60 years.
I am a Jew,
And I am against "ISRAEL" because I am a Jew.The state of "Israel" has no right to be called in the Holy Name of the Jewish people- "ISRAEL", the Zionists stolen the name of the Jewish people which means spirituality and subservience and worship G-d, who commanded us his holy law, the Holy Torah, and the Zionists, the state of Israel, desecrating the laws of G-d, and rebelling against his holy laws, against Judaism.Judaism is spirituality, religion.
Zionism is nationality and racism which total opposing the principles of Judaism, and, Zionists are opposing Judaism by the exist of their illegitimate Zionist state.
The Israeli-Zionists leaders, before more than 70 years ago since the Zionism established, they deceived the majority of the religious Jewish people by the falsify and distortion of the Jewish law and brainwashed them by Zionist propaganda, the Zionists forced themselves on the whole Jewish people in the world by lies and inciting against Judaism and against the Jewish belief of redemption by G-d, and called to move to Palestine by falsify claims, when in truth, actually, Jews are in exile everywhere, and are forbidden to have own state and any kind of regime and even forbidden to have a political movement like the Zionist movement, and we are forbidden to oppress and subjugate other people and nations like the Palestinian people, we must live under all nations in the world by peace and subservience, not like Zionists done.
The Zionists does not represent the Jewish law and Judaism, and they have no right to speak in the name of the Jewish people and represent us, they are false Jews, they do not stopping to desecrate the Jewish law and they making crimes against whom are refusing to recognize their "legitimacy” like Palestinians and anti-Zionist Jews.
Authentic Jews not Zionists, condemn and reject the atrocities and the provocations of the Zionists against humanity, authentic Jews have no part in the crimes of Zionists, and have no part with religious Zionists whom joined to the secular Zionists. Judaism is a religion!
Zionism is a racism and Anti-Judaism!
Anti-Zionism is not Anti-Semitism!
Judaism forbids the existence of state of Israel!
The State of “ISRAEL" based on racism, robbery, and on bloodshed of Jews and Arabs and other Non-Jews.
The state of "Israel" based on ethnic cleansing, and stealing the land of Palestine until today.
The only "achievements" that the Zionists and Zionist state brought and still bringing upon Jews are danger, tragedies, wars, destruction, suffering, deaths, killings, and Anti-Semitism everywhere.
The Zionists became the blessed land of Palestine- the land of peace, harmony and holiness, the Holy Land, to a cursed place, to land of war zones and battle zones, with Blood and tear Rivers of Jews and Arabs more than 60 years.
Zionism is completely opposing the principles of Judaism, and these criminals whom made genocide against Palestinians more than 60 years, especially on January 2009, on the war on Gaza ,on defenseless Palestinian people , these Zionists criminals are really do not represent the authentic Jewish people.
The Zionists, by the cover of "defense" and "saving" will not succeed to hide and justify their crimes against the humanity.
The exist of the Zionist State and the fake and false "defense" and "saving" of Jews by Zionists and its terrorist army the "IDF", is not, but a destruction and heavy danger for Jews everywhere.
After the tragedy of the Jewish people in Europe, the holocaust, if the world thinks to make a favor for Jews by giving to rule over Palestine and over nation in Palestine, on the back of defenseless nation in Palestine, the Palestinian people, the world make a mistake.
This is not a favor, not for Jews and not for Arabs and other Non-Jews,
This is a mistake, this is an injustice!
After the holocaust, by giving to Jews to reside in the countries of the world with no persecutions, but only in peace, compassion, security and harmony, to live the Jewish lives, in Europe, America, Asia and Australia and Africa, this is a really favor.
Favor for the whole world and favor for the Jewish people!
Make justice, and support the weak and defenseless Palestinian people, and stop to call the Zionist state in the Holy Name of the Jewish people, "ISRAEL", and act to dismantle the Zionists state, and restore in the holy land a Palestinian state, which there, Jews and Non-Jews will live together in peace and friendship and harmony, like it was in the holy land, in Palestine, before the establishment of Zionism and the Zionist movement.
Mr. President
Today, when you see that most of the religious orthodox Jews whom are supporting the Zionist state, voting in the Zionist elections, co-operating with the Zionist government inside, and with Zionist authorities, and even are recruiting in the Zionist army, its because most of them today born into the reality of the Zionism and the Zionist state, that they falsely think that Judaism and Zionism are same, but it is wrong and tragic mistake.
It is because, unfortunately, that the most of the early rabbinical orthodox leaders of Jewish communities in the era when Zionism established since 1896, and their successors until today influenced by the Zionist propaganda.
Part of them supported Zionism by unintentionally and erroneously.
Naivety, they thought that there is some physically and spiritually benefit by Zionism and by joining Zionists, but later they understood that they made mistake by their decision to support Zionism, when they saw the large dangerous of Zionism for Jews.
And most of them whom joined to Zionists by willful wrongdoer and deliberately, they justified the forbidden joining to the Zionist movements, by distortion of the Holy Jewish teachings which prohibits political human efforts to redeem the Jewish people, like Zionism, for granting permission to Zionism according to malicious false explanation of the Jewish law, by willful wrongdoer, self-concept corruption, by non-believing in the redemption by G-d, by revulsion and break the waiting for the time of heavenly redemption when most of Jews sitting in exile, and bribed by Zionist allowances and promises, for supporting the forbidden human political efforts to try save the Jews and for taking part in Zionist budgets and government.
By these chains of events and processes they did not save, but they damaged and still damaging and endangering Jews spiritually and physically, because of their Anti-Jewish views and dangerous insane Zionist vision, which are stranger to Judaism and to the principles of the Jewish belief.
And all their actions failed, and the Jews until today very suffer by the terrible existence of Zionist movement and Zionist state in generally.
The Palestinian people and the Jews are both victims of the Zionist state, and the cause of the Zionist-Arab conflict is hidden in fact of the existence of the illegitimate Zionist state, and only making historic justice for Palestinian people and Palestinian refugees whom expelled by Zionist forces, and give them to rule over the holy land around all parts of Palestine by dismantlement of the Zionist state, this is the real solution to solve the tragic injustice and the bloodshed in the Middle-East.
May G-d bless you!
Yours Truly
Avraham Ben-Yosef,
Email: avibey@gmail.com

U.S. Foreign Policy in the 20th and 21st Century

"Voice for Humanity" — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:57:48 EDT

By Padmini Arhant

The United States foreign policy in the twentieth and twenty first century viewed by allies and adversaries differently depending upon the U.S. engagement viz. modus operandi in the conflicts of the affected regions.

Throughout the twentieth century, the United States direct and indirect dominant role brought peace and chaos to the world order, ominously the Cuban crisis and the infamous Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos war combined with constant interventions in the Korean Peninsula, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa as well as South and South East Asia...

Remaining article @http://www.padminiarhant.com

Thank you.

Padmini Arhant

To Prosecute Torture Or Not...

Leo — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:33:45 EDT

For me it's coming down to what we are preserving- or attempting to preserve- I think the bad far outweighs the good here- and I believe that if Obama sidesteps this it will be his downfall.

President Obama will forever be linked to the Bush Torture Coverup and our great victory over the establishment will be torn down.

"It's a trap are you blind?" (Hamish) ~Braveheart

All Praises are Due to Allah!

TheBlaqueProfessor — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:47:59 EDT

Two years ago I spoke with my republican friends about the value of Barack Hussein Obama's heritage(s): his father's African and Islamic background, his mothers white, Judeo-Christian, middle-American background, then Senator Obama's middle name, the color of his skin, the power of his Ivy League education. All of these characteristics and human qualities rolled into one man are what gets now President Obama the respect from the people of the Middle East and Islamic world--the woman and man on the street and the powers of their countries--that is required to right the wrongs presented by both sides of the tensions between America and the Muslim world.President Obama's speech in Cairo, Egypt is relevant to not only Muslims, but also to African Americans, many of which consider themselves Muslims and decedents of Africa. Obama is the new face of justice for us. Palestine might again rise to a place of equal standing. The negative image and former actions of Hamas can be brought to a place where negotiations for a 2-State existence between them and Jews in the Middle East may yet occur. Young Muslims in the Middle East may begin to take the road to education, rather than the road to radicalism. Young Muslim women may see their freedom as women and citizens of their respective countries, and the Burka may be laid to rest or considered 'optional'. By the President stating clearly that he has no intensions of democratizing the rest of the world he is also saying that he has respect for us, our various lifestyles and geographic spaces. However, I thought it was a pinnacle moment when President Obama stated that regardless of religion, it should be all of our objectives to treat others as we would want to be treated. This philosophy is 180 degrees from white privilege, white power, superpower, gaze of development, or any other tradition that enslaved and oppressed millions for centuries, and there is no turning back. President Obama has, what may be the first time an American President BEGAN discourse with another culture with rhetoric of equality.

Thanks Mr. President! This IS change I can believe it and my voting for you has been worth it in every way. . .

President Barack H. Obama's Historic Speech: Between The Words Breaths of Wisdom

The Free Advice Man — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 01:49:50 EDT

by Jean-Pierre Ady Fenyo, a Philosophical Advisor to The President.

London, England - June 5, 2009.

There should be no doubt about it, the Historic speech made in Cairo, Egypt by President Barack H. Obama and delivered with great confidence to the Islamic Nations and peoples of the World, and to Arab Muslims in particular, had a lot more nuance and purpose in it than one would first sense by only listening to its words! Every breath between every thought uttered by President Obama held in it an air of deep wisdom whose purpose is greater than the sum of the words contained in his speech. The tone and the facial expressions of President Obama were like the invaluable markers used in the Hebrew Alef-Bet to denote specific sounds, vowels and consonants, without which it would be impossible to be even relatively sure what the author meant to write or the speaker really meant to say!

Mind you, I will not go into a detailed analysis of what exactly was meant by every gesture, expression, intonation, word, sentence, etc., for that could really take up a lot more time and space than is needed to make my point in this article. Suffice it to say, President Barack H. Obama's speech held in it both great promise and a stern warning, as well as what might be considered a coded sub-message! The great promise was one of almost infinite hope and faith in the principle that has been President Obama's legacy thus far: that almost every Human Being in the world, every child of the Great Spirit of H'SH'M, including the vast majority of Muslims, Jews and Christians, desire exactly the same basic things in this Life, World and from each neighbor and stranger! In effect, that almost all of us really do understand that there is a need, and thus a compelling possibility, for true compromise and tolerance based on the principle that without such we will never see an end to all the senseless extreme fear, irrational hatred, dehumanizing injustice, barbaric brutality, insensible threats and horrific violence that has plagued the world for millennia and might continue to plague us till we either come to our best senses or end up, unfortunately sooner than later, causing a world conflagration and final man-made disaster that will wipe out virtually everyone and every ounce of beautiful art, artistic design and imaginative creation we humans have ever produced! And also included in that great promise was an understanding that H'SH'M (G-D All-Loving) would not want us to murder one another in the name of any system of belief, faith or dogma, and that the true essence of what binds all the major religions and Spiritual Philosophies of the world must be the commonality of the Law of Love of H'SH'M; "Do Unto Others As They Truly Want To Be Done Unto and Do Nothing Unto Anyone That They Do Not Really Want To Have Done Unto Them!" True, President Obama inadvertently used the old and inaccurate version of what he really meant to say (he used the "Do unto others as you would want unto thyself!") as someone who I know cherishes the best of True Free-Masonic Ideals (mind you; not to be confused with the current mish-mash abusing the good name of Freemasonry!), as one who has studied the wisdom and compassion of Saladin (Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb), a wisdom that gave rise to The Knights Templar and eventually to the Freemasonry that helped bring about such great individuals as His Majesty King Charles The Second (King Charles II of England), Baruch Spinoza and Sir Isaac Newton (forgive me for not mentioning the Islamic and Jewish scholars of Islam's Golden Scientific Age, whom we should trouble ourselves to learn more about) who were very much part of The Rennaisance and The Age of Enlightenment, without which we would probably have gone into extinction by now!

In essence, President Barack H. Obama was actually invoking the memory of the Clash of Civilizations known mostly as The Crusades, which could easily have caused the collapse of all civilization in the World, had it continued and spread its megalomania elsewhere! And therein lies also President Obama's warning! For his predecessor, probably not fully aware of it, had almost served the full interests of those who almost succeeded in igniting another Worldwide Clash of Civilizations that would have caused a permanent and irrevocable divide, leading to all manner of megalomania and violence, between one side and the Islamic World, which numbers over 1.3 to 1.5 Billion people...over one-fifth of the World's total population at present!!! Anyone in their right mind can clearly see what that would have meant! No religion on Earth, no dogma or ideology, Spiritual or otherwise, can manage to dominate the world by force or even by gradual efforts at full conversion! Like it or not, we're going to have to accept that H'SH'M is above traditional religion, and that the True Way to Live by G-D's Golden Law of Love is to be found in our own individual, special, self-realized connection to H'SH'M!

We must be steadfast in our resolve to support President Obama and his efforts, through his Administration and as CEO of The United States of America, to bring about the Peaceful World Order he and most people in the World desire, need and should already have had ages ago!

Aboriginal Jews, Native Jews, their natural rights in their historic homeland VS Arab immigrants ("Palestinians")

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:36:43 EDT

Aboriginal Jews, Native Jews, their natural rights in their historic homeland VS Arab immigrants ("Palestinians")

Their fight against the bigotry by Arabism & Islamism who won't "accept'" them

Contents

Definition

Israel - Rightful Historic Homeland of Aboriginal Jews

Canadian MP and former justice minister Irwin Cotler: For Israel, rooted in the Jewish people, as an Abrahamic people, is a prototypical First Nation or aboriginal people, just as the Jewish religion is a prototypical aboriginal religion, the first of the Abrahamic religions.

In a WORD, the Jewish people is the only people that still inhabits the same land, embraces the same religion, studies the same Torah, hearkens to the same prophets, speaks the same aboriginal language - Hebrew - and bears the same aboriginal name, Israel, as it did 3,500 years ago.

Israel, then, is the aboriginal homeland of the Jewish people across space and time. It is not just a homeland for the Jewish people, a place of refuge, asylum and protection. It is the homeland of the Jewish people, wherever and whenever it may be; and its birth certificate originates in its inception as a First Nation, and not simply, however important, in its United Nations international birth certificate.

The State of Israel, then, as a political and juridical entity, overlaps with the "aboriginal Jewish homeland"; it is, in international legal terms, a successor state to the biblical, or aboriginal, Jewish kingdoms. [1]

Historical Roots

Jews

Aboriginal Rights to Israel, Aboriginal Native Jews to Israel "Palestine"

There is an enormous body of archaeological and historical evidence demonstrating that the Jewish People -- like the Greek People or the Han Chinese People -- is among the oldest of the world's Peoples. Thus, it is well known that the Jewish People has more than 3,500 years of continuous history, with a subjective-objective national identity that, in each century, has kept a link to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. For example, the Jewish Bible, the Christian Gospels and the Koran all specifically testify to the connection between the Jewish People and its historic homeland. Like other Peoples, the Jewish People has a right to self-determination. Though the self-determination of the Arab People is expressed via twenty-one Arab countries, Israel is the sole expression of the self-determination of the Jewish People, which of all extant Peoples, has the strongest claim to be considered aboriginal to the territory west of the Jordan River.

Thus, the Jewish People is aboriginal to Israel in the same way that, in Canada, certain First Nations are deemed aboriginal to their ancestral lands. And, it is noteworthy that the Supreme Court of Canada has decided that, where aboriginals maintain their historical connection with the land, aboriginal title can survive both sovereignty changes and influx of new populations resulting from foreign conquest.Yet, (bigotry by) Arabs, Muslims have denied that the Jews are a People within the context of the modern political and legal doctrine of the self-determination of Peoples. Keeping in mind that the Middle East has always had a significant Jewish population, including some Jews who, in each century, continued to live west of the Jordan River. Today, many of the sons and daughters of these Middle Eastern Jews are citizens of Israel, where they have been joined by Jews from many other countries. When In October 1917, the British Cabinet adopted, as a declared war aim, the creation of an entirely new country called "Palestine" to serve as "a national home for the Jewish People," it was done to help realize the Jewish People�s self-determination on its ancestral lands... so was the announcment to the world of Jewish-National-Home Palestine in the November 1917 Balfour Declaration. As the international decision to establish "a national home for the Jewish People" was the sole rationale for the 1922 creation of Jewish-National-Home Palestine which, under the aegis of the League of Nations. While deep into the 20th century, Arab leaders themselves failed to recognize the right to self-determination of a distinct Palestinian Arab People. For example, as principal Arab leader at the 1919-1920 Paris Peace Conference, Prince Feisal specifically accepted the plan to create Palestine as �a national home for the Jewish People� and his father, the Hashemite King of the Hedjaz (later part of Saudi Arabia) was party to the 1920 Sevres Treaty that explicitly stipulated that the newly-created Palestine would be "a national home for the Jewish People." [2]

One has described a "remarkable synergy" between the Australian aboriginals and the Jews: "The Jewish community is an ancient and oppressed people, as the Aborigines are; we were the indigenous people of the land of Israel who were kicked out of our land 2000 years ago." [3]

Jews - Ancient Indigenous Natives in the area

There's extensive research on The Dhimmi: (Indigenous) Jews & Christians Under Islam [4], 850,000 Jews had to flee Arab Muslim lands where they had lived for centuries - often longer than the Arabs who now claim to be its indigenous national people. [5]

JIMENA stands for: 'Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa', it is a human rights organization seeking to educate and advocate for the plight of Jewish refugees from the Middle East. Prior to 1948, approximately 850,000 Jews lived in Muslim countries of the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf. Today, 99 percent of these ancient Jewish communities no longer exist due to Arab and Islamic government actions that directly led to their displacement. [6]

Jews are a multi-racial, multi-ethnic people. For about 50 years, the majority of the Jewish population of Israel has been Mizrahim - Jews indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa. Moreover, this community of Jews has lived in the Middle East and North Africa since time immemorial. Until the mid-twentieth century, in the 4,000-year history of the Jewish people, Mizrahim never left the region. (When Arab Muslims conquered the Middle East and North Africa, Jews were one of the few indigenous peoples that resisted conversion to Islam), [7]

Arabs

Arab immigrants and their lies about being "natives"

The Arabs in the Holy Land - Aliens, not Natives! [8], The True Identity of the So-called Palestinians. The current myth is that these Arabs were long established in "Palestine", until the Jews came and "displaced" them. The fact is, that recent Arab immigration into the Land of Israel displaced the Jews. That the massive increase in Arab population was very recent is attested by the ruling of the United Nations: That any Arab who had lived in the Holy Land for two years and then left in 1948 qualifies as a "Palestinian refugee". Palestinians are the newest of all the peoples on the face of the Earth, and began to exist in a single day by a kind of supernatural phenomenon that is unique in the whole history of mankind, as it is witnessed by Walid Shoebat, a former PLO terrorist that acknowledged the lie he was fighting for and the truth he was fighting against: "Why is it that on June 4th 1967 I was a Jordanian and overnight I became a Palestinian?" "We did not particularly mind Jordanian rule. The teaching of the destruction of Israel was a definite part of the curriculum, but we considered ourselves Jordanian until the Jews returned to Jerusalem. Then all of the sudden we were Palestinians - they removed the star from the Jordanian flag and all at once we had a Palestinian flag". "When I finally realized the lies and myths I was taught, it is my duty as a righteous person to speak out". [9], in fact, the myth of the Palestinian People serves as the justification for Arab occupation of the Land of Israel. [10]

An explanatory film came out to 'dispel Arab propaganda', on the tactics disguising the Arab immigrants as "indigenous native Palestinian" [11]

Even Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas Admits Palestinian Arabs Are Not Indigenous. From a speech given to the PLO [12]

A writer in: 'The Myth Of The Palestinian People,' Only one question never seems to be addressed: Who are the Palestinians? Who are these people who claim the Holy Land as their own? What is their history? Where did they come from? How did they arrive in the country they call Palestine? Not only pre-state Arabs lied about being indigenous. Even today, many prominent so-called Palestinians, it turns out, are foreign born. Edward Said, an Ivy League Professor of Literature and a major Palestinian propagandist, long claimed to have been raised in Jerusalem. However, in an article in the September 1999 issue of Commentary Magazine Justus Reid Weiner revealed that Said actually grew up in Cairo, Egypt, a fact which Said himself was later forced to admit. But why bother with Said? PLO chief Yasir Arafat himself, self declared 'leader of the Palestinian people', has always claimed to have been born and raised in 'Palestine'. In fact, according to his official biographer Richard Hart, as well as the BBC, Arafat was born in Cairo on August 24, 1929 and that's where he grew up. [13]

A writer in "The Real Palestinian Refugees": Jews have lived in Israel/Palestine for 4000 years and those Jewish families who have constantly lived in the country since Biblical times, the mustarabim, are the indigenous Palestinians. (There has never been a 2000 year absence).

The first Arabs came to the country in the 7th century in the wake of their conquering armies after the death of Mohammed. They've been immigrating, and emigrating, ever since, bringing with them their civil wars (in which Jews were severely persecuted by both sides) and their screwed-up environmental concepts that turned forest into desert. Other groups of peoples also immigrated to Israel/Palestine during this time, especially the Druze. (Today, if you call a Druze an Arab, you've just insulted him. This was told to me by a Druze.) Perhaps the earliest Zionist pioneers did have to fight Arab marauders and make the desert bloom, but they did not come to an empty land. Maybe it was sparsely populated, but it was not empty of Jews.

In 1920/1. The first Palestinian refugees were Jews. In the aftermath of WWI, after the Arab riots.

In 1922, in a continuing policy of appeasing the Arabs, 75% of Palestine was taken away from the Jews and the Emirate of Transjordan was created, later to become Jordan. First the British, then the Arabs, banned the entry of Jews from the area - a policy that continued until very recently. [14]

Desolated "Palestine" in the late 1800

The Land of Israel, according to dozens of visitors to the land, was, until the beginning of the last century, practically empty. Alphonse de Lamartine visited the land in 1835. [15]

On a visit to the Ottoman-controlled Holy Land in 1860, Mark Twain described it as "the prince of desolation." "The hills are barren� the valleys unsightly deserts� peopled by swarms of beggars struck with ghastly sores and malformations� Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes� only the music of angels could charm its shrubs and flowers again into life."

Other writers and artists visiting the Holy Land (chiefly from Britain and Germany) � as well as geographers, archeologists, and cartographers � were equally stunned by its utter desolation.

It was only toward the end of the 18th century, when a growing stream of Jewish immigrants rehabilitated the land � draining swamps, reclaiming deserts, and controlling the diseases (chiefly malaria) � that a decimated Arab population began increasing. The resuscitation of the land by the Jews and the economic opportunity they created brought an influx of Arab immigrants from dirt-poor neighboring Arab states to swell the number of Arabs in Palestine, so that by the turn of the century there were about 250,000 Arab Muslims and 150,00 Jews living there. 100,000 Christians and others was common colonial practice: divide and rule. In India, it enabled the British to subdue the subcontinent with few troops by pitting hostile segments of the indigenous population against each other. They employed this strategy in Palestine too. British officials, many of them avowed anti-Semites, fanned Arab resentment over broken British promises to make the Arabian chieftain, Faisal, king of Damascus and Syria, and redirected it against Jewish aspirations in Palestine. Their naming the mandate over the Holy Land "Palestine," rather than the land of Israel, was a deliberate effort to obliterate the Jewish connection to the land by calling it by its Roman name. [16]

In Jerusalem, all reports and journals of travelers, pilgrims and government representatives during these years, repeatedly record the poverty, filth and neglect and the desolate nature of the countryside. Early photographs show lepers in rags and dilapidated buildings. Jerusalem was surrounded by marauding bands of Bedouin Arabs and had to close her gates at nightfall and reopen them at first light, a practice that was similar in Biblical times.

Some quotes from the writings of these visitors before modern times:

Nothing there [Jerusalem] to be seen but a little of the old walls which is yet remaining and all the rest is grass, moss and weeds. [English pilgrim in 1590]

The country is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants and therefore its greatest need is of a body of population. [British consul in 1857]

There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent [valley of Jezreel] -- not for 30 miles in either direction... One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings. ... For the sort of solitude to make one dreary, come to Galilee ... Nazareth is forlorn ... Jericho lies a moldering ruin ... Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and humiliation... untenanted by any living creature... A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds ... a silent, mournful expanse ... a desolation ... We never saw a human being on the whole route ... Hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil had almost deserted the country ... Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery Palestine must be the prince. The hills barren and dull, the valleys unsightly deserts [inhabited by] swarms of beggars with ghastly sores and malformations. Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes ... desolate and unlovely ... [Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, 1867] [17]

National Liberation

Israel - result of a national Liberation of the aboriginal Jews

Israel can be seen as the result of the national liberation movement of the region's aboriginal Jews. Liberation of the aboriginal Jews (and anyone else lucky enough to find refuge within Israel's borders) from the twin fascisms of pan-Arabism and Islamism which have oppressed and even eliminated so many of the region�s aboriginal ethnic groups. Israel's aboriginal Jews were not unique in accepting outside help (and even immigration) in their liberation struggle, so were Lebanon's Maronites; Egypt's Copts, Iraq and Turkey's Kurds, and Iran's Zoroastrians. [18], as a commentator said: It is immoral to ethnically cleanse Judea of its aboriginal Jews. as It is immoral to ethnically cleanse Australia of its Australian aborigines, It is immoral to ethnically cleanse Judea of its Jewish aborigines (Jews = originally from Judea). [19]

One major difference between the Jews' return to the Land of Israel and the restitution of the title that indigenous groups have to their traditional lands in Australia and Canada is that the latter occurred within the political framework of states that have established legislative and judicial institutions and law enforcement agencies. These institutions draft the principles that define the relationships among all of their subjects, and they settle any disputes which might arise. In contrast, the Jews' return to Palestine occurred in an international context in which such legislative, judicial, and law enforcement institutions were in their embryonic stages. [20]

Racism – The Durban II, Geneva Conference

"Voice for Humanity" — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:55:19 EDT

By Padmini Arhant

www.padminiarhant.com

Racism – The Durban II, Geneva Conference

The past week - April 20 -24, 2009, Geneva, Switzerland hosted ‘The Durban II conference’ on racism. The preceding event in 2001 held in Durban, South Africa marred by racial overtones and negative attacks against the state of Israel evidently led the United States and Western allies to boycott the recent U.N meeting.

It was a United Nations gathering to address the persisting contemporary discriminatory practices often transforming into persecution, oppression and even genocide in some parts of the world. According to the White House and media reports, the reason behind United States and allies’ absence at the symposium was the blue print content notably against Israel by the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, the United Nations’ assurance to eliminate any anti-Israeli inflammatory remarks from the Iranian President’s speech failed in convincing the United States, Israel and others to attend the world forum.

Meanwhile, predictably the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad’s rhetorical speech caused spectacle prompting other European diplomats to briefly abandon the summit. To the United Nations’ credit, the subsequent address by the Iranian President modified to reflect reality on the tragic holocaust previously denied by the political figure.

Whenever a consortium organized to deal with sensitive humanitarian issue of great magnitude, the stage is set for fireworks and doesn’t require more than a spark to ignite the flame into blazing fire. All those refuting the one nation’s contentious repetitive conduct, regrettably ignored the wide spectrum of humanitarian crises around the world. The objection against a particular nation’s demeanor effectively dismissed the urgency for unanimous solutions to global problems affecting humanity.
Further, such action conspicuously displayed hierarchy prevalent in the humanitarian priorities.

Every continent has nations with dark legacy and embarrassing episodes of human rights violation. In the new millennium, the global community challenged to empathize with those currently enduring incessant suffering due to lack of freedom, inequality, injustice including intolerance.

The Geneva conference was a great platform for the nations that boycotted the meeting exclusively the United States and Israel to express serious commitment in resolving the age-old Middle East conflict between Israel and Palestine. Any glimpse of hope in the two states solutions approved by vast majority of population on both sides with a free Palestine comprising West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem alongside the democratic Israel unequivocally accepted as a sovereign state in the entire region would have instantaneously gained credibility in the large presence of the United Nations.

Needlessly, as holocaust victims Israel was better qualified to condemn any crime against humanity and set an example by leading the world in the establishment of peace and democracy with its neighbor Palestine. Israel had a unique opportunity in Geneva to demonstrate solemn pledge and action to aid those, relevantly the Palestinians deserving similar liberty granted to Israel predominantly with the support and solidarity among the nations around the world. Israel’s unprecedented humanitarian gesture would have made it incumbent on the Arab nations at the conference to forge alliance in promoting regional unity and peace.

If the world would not have heeded to the humanitarian call for an Independent Israel, it could have resulted in the devastating annihilation of a specific human race. Likewise, South Africa proudly declaring results from a democratic election today would have succumbed to oppressive apartheid without the international community’s involvement in the freedom of that nation.

There is immense misery and extreme hardships in various parts of the world. People in these regions generally exposed to despair, depression and death at infancy consider themselves fortunate if they live beyond the short life expectancy because of poverty, disease, war and deprivation of basic human rights.

Geneva conference reached a broad based consensus against racial and gender discrimination, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia other than human rights abuses across the globe. An international assembly by governments from most parts of the world had the moment and venue to review pertinent matter concerning different nations and people. Unfortunately, the U.N committee presumably under intense pressure from nations prioritizing political agenda in their allegiance to a single ally, did not layout the importance of relieving humanity from the perpetual violence through war, invasion and occupation reminiscent of the twentieth century’s imperialism and colonialism .

Is there deficiency in related topics involving the remaining population on the planet seeking entitlement to the international representation, rescue and relief from burgeoning crimes against innocent civilians?

Only if rationality and utilitarianism prevailed over popular political dogma of individualism, the desirable goals for fairness and justice are attainable in human affairs.

Is the struggle for peace and independence by the population in Palestine, Burma, Tibet, and North Korea any less significant than the international feud between Israel and Iran?

What about the status quo of civil wars contributing to genocides in Rwanda, Darfur, Congo and other parts of Africa?

Should the world ignore the escalating ethnic cleansing in Sri Lanka as an internal matter rather than an international moral issue?

Where was the denunciation of the pervasive Taliban abuse of women in Afghanistan now dangerously spreading to the Northwestern regions of Pakistan?

Why did the summit not extensively focus on the various abuses in Latin, Central and South America and China, notwithstanding the denial of equal status to women in the Middle East and other Islamic nations?

On the generic concept of racism, xenophobia - typically the fear of the unknown, homophobia - the overt hate crimes against gay and trans-gender community and other horrific incidents in human trafficking, child pornography and numerous offenses were excluded during the five-day long international meeting.

Apparently, the interpretation of ‘tolerance’ in the crimes against humanity is subject to the relationship among existing and emerging economic and political powers in the global society.

The protocol on protests, boycott and co-operation alike varies depending on the nations along with political and economic repercussions arising from such action.

For example, the Iranian President’s controversial stance against Israel held responsible for the Western nations’ boycott of the latest Geneva conference on racism while implying the other attendees’ motive questionable.

Nevertheless, the human rights activists’ plea to boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics to draw attention towards the plight of the Tibetan population persecuted by the hour and suppression of the democracy movement in the People’s Republic of China rejected by the participating nations prominently those who recently boycotted the Geneva conference.

It is widespread knowledge that the emerging economic power China being the treasury and
Exchequer for the world economy, a nuclear nation possessing veto power routinely exercised against common benefit in the U.N. Security Council decisions, privileged with supreme diplomatic immunity in all things inhumane.

In the recent G-20 summit, call for globalization over protectionism dominated the theme for global economic revival. Synonymously, in the environmental matter and international security collective effort embraced as a successful strategy. Henceforth, collaborative action regarded imminent to resolve international crises.

Ironically, abstaining from leadership at the summit to formulate policies in the restoration of human rights, freedom and civil liberties, the fundamental requirements for peace, progress and prosperity, creates a vacuum rather than serving the real purpose.

History is testimony to the rise and fall of civilizations that fair well when guided by wisdom, compassion and courage for universal good.

Thank you.

Padmini Arhant

Adolf Hitler / Nazis hated Arabs "inferior race," yet used them as disposable tools against Jews

Unknown user — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:04:10 EDT

Adolf Hitler / Nazis hated Arabs as an inferior “race”, yet praised Islam in its ‘war like’ TOTALITARIAN ideology He saw them as a great disposable tool to be used against the Jews, the mufti fell for it.

SPLCenter.org: The Swastika and the Crescent, Although he loathed Arabs (he once described them as “lacquered half-apes who ought to be whipped“), Hitler understood that he and the Mufti shared the same rivals, British and the Jews… http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=242

ESSAY - May 2002 By Martin A. Lee …Ahmed Huber: Neo-Nazi, Islamic convert… The roots of the Muslim Brotherhood and, in many ways, the Nazi-Muslim axis go back to the organisation’s formation in Egypt in 1928. Marking the start of modern political “Islamic fundamentalism,” the Brotherhood from the outset envisioned a time when an Islamic state would prevail in Egypt and other Arab countries.

The growth of the Muslim Brotherhood coincided with the rise of fascist movements in Europe - a parallel noted by Muhammad Sa’id al-’Ashmawy, former chief justice of Egypt’s High Criminal Court, who decried “the perversion of Islam” and “the fascistic ideology” that infuses the world view of the Brothers. Youssef Nada, current board chairman of Al Taqwa, had joined the armed branch of the Muslim Brotherhood as a young man in Egypt during World War II. Nada and several of his cohorts in the Sunni Muslim fraternity were recruited by German military intelligence. Hassan al-Banna, the Egyptian schoolteacher who founded the Muslim Brotherhood, also collaborated with spies of the Third Reich. Advocating a pan-Islamic insurgency in British-controlled Palestine, the Brotherhood proclaimed their support for the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Husseini, in the late 1930s.

The Grand Mufti, the preeminent religious figure among Palestinian Muslims, was the most notable Arab leader to seek an alliance with Nazi Germany. Although he loathed Arabs (he once described them as “lacquered half-apes who ought to be whipped”), Hitler understood that he and the Mufti shared the same rivals - the British, the Jews and the Communists. They met in Berlin, where the Mufti lived in exile during the war. The Mufti agreed to help organise a special Muslim division of the Waffen SS. Powerful radio transmitters were put at the Mufti’s disposal so that his pro-Axis propaganda could be heard throughout the Arab world. http://www.aijac.org.au/review/2002/275/essay275.html

War aims in the second world war: the war aims of the major belligerents …‎ - by Victor Rothwell - History - 2005 - 244 pages (Page 41) However, the Nazis were clear in their minds that the Arabs were racially inferior, and there would, therefore, be no pleasure to be had from helping them in anything except for the extermination of Jews in their region. http://books.google.com/books?id=XfgLbSc94MEC&pg=PA41

Islam, Nazism, and Totalitarianism

During an interview conducted in the late 1930s (published in 1939), Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychiatry, was asked “…had he any views on what was likely to be the next step in religious development?” Jung replied, in reference to the Nazi fervor that had gripped Germany We do not know whether Hitler is going to found a new Islam. He is already on the way; he is like Muhammad. The emotion in Germany is Islamic; warlike and Islamic. They are all drunk with wild god. That can be the historic future. Albert Speer, who was Hitler’s Minister of Armaments and War Production, wrote a contrite memoir of his World War II experiences while serving a 20-year prison sentence imposed by the Nuremberg tribunal.

Speer’s narrative includes this discussion, which captures Hitler’s racist views of Arabs on the one hand, and his effusive praise for Islam on the other:

Hitler had been much impressed by a scrap of history he had learned from a delegation of distinguished Arabs. When the Mohammedans attempted to penetrate beyond France into Central Europe during the eighth century, his visitors had told him, they had been driven back at the Battle of Tours. Had the Arabs won this battle, the world would be Mohammedan today. For theirs was a religion that believed in spreading the faith by the sword and subjugating all nations to that faith. Such a creed was perfectly suited to the Germanic temperament. Hitler said that the conquering Arabs, because of their racial inferiority, would in the long run have been unable to contend with the harsher climate and conditions of the country. They could not have kept down the more vigorous natives, so that ultimately not Arabs but Islamized Germans could have stood at the head of this Mohammedan Empire. Hitler usually concluded this historical speculation by remarking, “You see, it’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn’t we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?” http://www.andrewbostom.org/content/view/61/55/

The roots of Arab Anti-Semitism - By David Greenberg - Slate Magazine Oct 31, 2001 … As he notes, anti-Semitism in Arab countries (and non-Arab Islamic states such as Iran) …. East—they were eager to make common cause with Hitler, despite Nazi belief that they, like the Jews, were inferior to Aryans. … http://www.slate.com/id/2057949/

The third Reich & the Palestine question - Francis R. Nicosia - 2000 - History - 319 pages (Page 85) Most Arabs never realized that the Nazis would consider them racially inferior as well and that Germany had no intention of undermining British authority in … http://books.google.com/books?id=xh4m-OMrhJUC&pg=PA85

The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism: Adolf Hitler and Haj … Chuck Morse - 2003 - History - 188 pages (page 53) … as Hitler was known to have described the Arabs as “lacquered half-apes who ought to be whipped,” to a lower race … http://books.google.com/books?id=HGkthBwbNg8C&pg=PA53

Despite Hitler’s personal antipathy towards Arabs, who he once described as lacquered half apes who ought to be whipped, he nevertheless was prepared to … http://www.thecst.org.uk/docs/An%20unholy%20alliance%201801%20original.doc

The Beast Reawakens: Fascism’s Resurgence from Hitler’s Spymasters …Martin A. Lee - 1999 - Political Science - 560 pages (page 122) Even though he loathed Arabs (he once described them as “lacquered half-apes who ought to be whipped”), Hitler was nonetheless the idol of the paramilitary … http://books.google.com/books?id=SX4B7pNG3W8C&pg=PA122

ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN’S PERSECUTION OPPRESSION OF MINORITIES - ISLAMIC APARTHEID

Unknown user — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:37:34 EDT

ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN’S PERSECUTION OPPRESSION OF MINORITIES - ISLAMIC APARTHEID

In General, Christians, Baha’i, Kurds, Jews, Azeris, Baluchis, Ahwazi Arabs

Again, religious persecution in Iran
February 20, 2009
Ethel C. Fenig
As Thomas Lifson noted yesterday Iranian authorities destroyed a Sufi holy site, continuing their practice of pressuring and discriminating against religions that do not strictly follow the Shi’ite form of Islam. But the Sufis are not the only religious minority suffering discrimination in Iran.

The 2500 year old Jewish community, which numbered over 80,000 thirty years ago at the time of the Khoemeni Revolution which overthrew the Shah, has dwindled to about 20,000. Those remaining Jews live restricted personal and religious lives, always under suspicion of being traitors for pro “Zionist” activities.
Despite the official distinction between “Jews,” “Zionists,” and “Israel,” the most common accusation the Jews encounter is that of maintaining contacts with Zionists. The Jewish community does enjoy a measure of religious freedom but is faced with constant suspicion of cooperating with the Zionist state and with “imperialistic America” — both such activities are punishable by death. Jews who apply for a passport to travel abroad must do so in a special bureau and are immediately put under surveillance. The government does not generally allow all members of a family to travel abroad at the same time to prevent Jewish emigration. Again, the Jews live under the status of dhimmi, with the restrictions im posed on religious minorities. Jewish leaders fear government reprisals if they draw attention to official mistreatment of their community.

Iran’s official government-controlled media often issues anti-Semitic propaganda. A prime example is the government’s publishing of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious Czarist forgery, in 1994 and 1999.2 Jews also suffer varying degrees of officially sanctioned discrimination, particularly in the areas of employment, education, and public accommodations.The Islamization of the country has brought about strict control over Jewish educational institutions. Before the revolution, there were some 20 Jewish schools functioning throughout the country. In recent years, most of these have been closed down. In the remaining schools, Jewish principals have been replaced by Muslims. In Teheran there are still three schools in which Jewish pupils constitute a majority. The curriculum is Islamic, and Persian is forbidden as the language of instruction for Jewish studies. Special Hebrew lessons are conducted on Fridays by the Orthodox Otzar ha-Torah organization, which is responsible for Jewish religious education. Saturday is no longer officially recognized as the Jewish sabbath, and Jewish pupils are compelled to attend school on that day. There are three synagogues in Teheran, but since 1994, there has been no rabbi in Iran, and the bet din does not function.At least 13 Jews have been executed in Iran since the Islamic revolution 30 years ago, most of them for either religious reasons or their connection to Israel. For example, in May 1998, Jewish businessman Ruhollah Kakhodah-Zadeh was hanged in prison without a public charge or legal proceeding, apparently for assisting Jews to emigrate.Other religious groups are persecuted too. This week Iran admitted that seven Bahai leaders arrested and detained more than eight months ago would be charged with spying for Israel. The Bahai faith, which began in the 19th century in what is now Iran, claims their founder, Baha’a'llah, is the last Moslem prophet, not Mohammed. Bahai’s international headquarters are located in Haifa, Israel where Bahais, along with Moslems and Christians of various backgrounds, plus other religions in addition to Jews can practice freely.This is not true in Iran.Bahais claim 300,000 followers in Iran, but there are no independent statistics on the denomination’s size in the country. The Islamic republic allows Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, who are regarded as members of monotheistic religions, to hold religious gatherings. Bahais are forbidden to hold such meetings, and those who make their faith public are banned from studying at universities serving in the army and working in government offices. The Iranian prosecutors claim“All evidence points to the fact that the Bahai organization is in direct contact with the foreign enemies of Iran,” Dorri-Najafabadi wrote in the letter, (snip) “The ghastly Bahai organization is illegal on all levels, their dependence on Israel has been documented, their antagonism with Islam and the Islamic System is obvious, their danger for national security is proven and any replacement organization must also be dealt with according to the law,”This charge is part of the latest prosecution against Iranian Bahais. The Bahai International Community, which represents members of the faith worldwide, says hundreds of followers have been jailed and some executed in the years since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/02/again_religious_persecution_in.html

Religious minorities in Iran: Information from Answers.com http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521770734

Iran Minority News
http://iranminoritynews.org/

Middle East Minorities Unite! by Joseph … Iran ’s Islamic republic has created serious problems for the large communities of non-Persian minorities, including the Azeri’s and the Baluchis and is … http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=24209

Q&A: Iran’s Waning Human Rights - New York Times, Iran is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affords legal rights to minorities and minors. Persecution of religious minorities …http://www.nytimes.com/cfr/world/slot1_081006.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

A few points about the racist UN - Durban "anti-racism" conference

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 03:38:40 EDT

A few points about the racist UN - Durban "anti-racism" conference

1) When will Arab racists & Islamic bigots let go of the UN and stop hijacking it with it's lobbies (silencing Arab racist genocide in Darfur, yet daming innocent Israelis who merely try to survive)?

2) Why is Arab terror singling out Jews not racist?

3) Why is the essence of the entire "conflict'" in the M.E. not a form of bigotry by Arab Muslims who can't "accept" the non Arab non Muslim pluralistic democratic Israel?

4) Are Jews living, or even allowed to live in racist "Palestinian" controlled territories (Judenrein - ethnic cleaning)?

5) When will lefty radicals (Meretz/B'Tzelem) talk about preferential treatments to Arabs OVER Jews inside Israel, like in Hebron and in other cases?

6) Why are (Arab Palestinian or Hezbollah) the ones using its own kids as cannon fodders considered "innocent victims"?

7) Is Israel battling just terrorism or an ARAB MUSLIM CAMPAIGN OF GENOCIDE since the 1920's?

8) Since Muslim nations (OIC & Iran) push to criminalize criticism of Islamists' bigotry, doesn't it mean that anything being said in that conference is the opposite of tolerance and of truth?

9) How can the UN avoid the largest practitioner of racism, which is Arabism (against: Kurds, Berbers, Africans, Jews, Assyrians, Asians, etc.), but focuses on the so called "anti-Arab racism"?
[ http://geocities.com/panarabism - Arabism is racism! ]

10) How more racist can the Durban-conference get, If the two oppressive regimes: Libya & Iran are the "stars"?
Libya - whose Muamar Qaddafi (besides his own persecution of non-Arabs, especially blacks in his country) the one of the champions in today's racist Arabization, and Arabist racism against Africa (whose "vision" has been compared to Hitler's "lebensraum"), in: Chad, Nigeria, etc., ultimately his crimes in the Sudan region helped in leading the current Al-Bashir's genocide on Millions of Africans (financed mainly by Libya and S. Arabia).
Iran, the regime of Islamic bigotry's oppression on its own population with an added special persecution on all on-Muslims: Christians, Baha'i, Jews, etc. or on non-"pure-Persians" like: Ahwazi - Arabs, Kurds, Azeris, Baluchis, etc. now under the leadership of: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [EichmannJihad - the Islamic Hitler] who plays as if he "denies" the holocaust only in order to prepare for (his wishful) the second, "wiping off Israel".
Thus, the shame of the UN, kidnapped by the epitome of intolerance today, the infamous twin fascism: Arab racism, as in Gadhafi, and Islamic bigotry as in Amadinejad, are going to be "preaching" (and determine) to the world on tolerance.

The Blinds of Justice are Lifting

Tom Awtry — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:27:18 EDT

A couple of months ago (February 2nd to be precise), I authored a posting entitled, “John Yoo A Tough Decision to Defend for the President” regarding the redemption of America’s justice system in wake of all the miscarriages of justice which occurred during the Bush Administration and in particular those pertaining to John Yoo. Yoo was Bush’s lead legal adviser authoring legal memos concerning the treatment, incarceration and trial (hearings) proceedings of Iraqi and Afghan detainees.

Following up on my past posting I’ve learned others share equally in my interest of Mr. Yoo’s all encompassing ability of embarrassing our country in the eyes of the international community. In an article posted within Hoffington Post, Mr. Martin Garbus, a Trial lawyer, authored an article entitled: “The Times May Be Changing” where he states some of the following excerpts:

Now six years after Iraq started, nearly one hundred days into the new presidency, more and more information is coming out about the involvement of the Bush people in Iraq-related criminal acts. The legal memos and the statements of tortured detainees are only the beginning of what will soon be a flood of information.

The legal machinery is starting to build, case by case, a rejection of Bush’s legal theories.
Today’s decision from Federal Judge John Bates of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia that those detained in Afghanistan will have access to American courts builds on the recent cases that allow Guantanamo detainees access to the federal court. Judge Bates rejected both the Bush administration’s view and the recently articulated view of President Barack Obama that habeas corpus is not available to imprisoned non-Afghans who are arrested beyond Afghanistan.

We are seeing a pattern in the Washington federal courts. The judges are not shying away from tacking tough issues. The concept that a man sitting in Baghram has a right he can enforce in an American court seemed impossible a few years ago. The constant rat-a-tat of the media, with pictures of the tortured prisoners clearly influences judges along with the rest of the population. Judges respond also when the president too set a higher standard.

Attorney General Eric Holder is the one who must start the criminal process against Cheney, Gonzales, Yoo and the others. He does not shy away from difficult choices, given backing that lets him know he is not alone. He can, and has, taken positions that are ahead of Obama.

Attorney General Holder’s decision today is easier than it was yesterday, and as more and more stories of brutalized prisoners come out, it will get even easier, especially with our President’s recent executive order of allowing wider windows to be opened to the public through the “Freedom of Information Act.

Judge Bates, and the judges before him, including the Supreme Court, have rejected the rationale of Bush’s Attorney General and supporting lawyers that gave the President “unitary powers.”

The public should let Eric Holder and the president know they support criminal prosecution of the Bush people. This may be accomplished by contacting the Department of Justice here.

Additional postings regarding this topic and others may be found here:

What is bias in the middle east conflict? [March, 2009]

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:57:01 EDT

What is bias in the middle east conflict? [March, 2009]

Arabs’ racist killing (specifically) Jews *, is accepted “freedom fighting’'.

Israelis worried of Arab terror *, branded as “racists”.

War crimes, crimes against humanity by Palestinian Arab leadership - regime in Gaza * * * of using Arab civilians, making sure their kids die, for the “greater good (Jihadi-fascism’s goodness) of making Israel look bad…” * * * * * * *, using hospitals *, schools, UN medical vehicles * *, even aid material sent by humanitarian Israel * for murder, targeting at Israeli civilians, - shoved aside, ignored *.

Israel’s humane army’s extreme measures not to hit civilians (including 250,000 warning phone calls to Arab residents to evacuate a particular area designated to be included in an op., knowing full well terrorists can cease the opportunity and flea, as well as risking young soldiers’ lives in going door to door) * * * * aiming only at Hamas terrorists is denounced of “random shooting” and “war crimes”.

[Arab led pressure forcing Israel to conduct] Uprooting Jews from their homes and their ancestors’, AKA Transfer * * AKA Arab Palestinian Apartheid * is “good for peace”.

Transfer of Arabs (who don’t have more than 2 or 3 generations of history in Judea / Israel / Palestine * * * *) is “apartheid, fascist and racist” * (AKA Avigdor Lieberman).

While Hamas or even “Moderate” Fatah refuses to recognize Israel *, international aid is flowing their way.

UN is “busy” condemning Israel * * on whatever is being told (forced) by the global Arab Muslim oil lobby.

Anti-Zionism is hate, racism

Unknown user — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:33:40 EDT

Anti-Zionism is hate

By Judea Pearl March 22, 2009

In January, four longtime Israel bashers were invited to the University of California, Los Angeles, to analyze the human rights conditions in Gaza, and used the stage to attack the legitimacy of Zionism and its vision of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

They criminalized Israel’s existence, distorted its motives and maligned its character, its birth, even its conception. At one point, the excited audience reportedly chanted “Zionism is Nazism” and worse.

Jewish leaders condemned this hate-fest as a dangerous invitation to anti-Semitic hysteria. The organizers, some of them Jewish, took refuge in “academic freedom” and the argument that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.

I fully support this mantra, not because it exonerates anti-Zionists from charges of anti-Semitism but because the distinction helps us focus attention on the discriminatory, immoral and more dangerous character of anti-Zionism.

Anti-Zionism rejects the very notion that Jews are a nation - a collective bonded by a common history - and, accordingly, denies Jews the right to self-determination in their historical birthplace. It seeks the dismantling of the Jewish nation-state: Israel.

Anti-Zionism earns its discriminatory character by denying the Jewish people what it grants to other historically bonded collectives (e.g., French, Spanish, Palestinians): namely, the right to nationhood, self-determination and legitimate coexistence with other indigenous claimants.

Anti-Semitism rejects Jews as equal members of the human race; anti-Zionism rejects Israel as an equal member in the family of nations.

Are Jews a nation? Some philosophers would argue Jews are a nation first and religion second. Indeed, the narrative of Exodus and the vision of the impending journey to the land of Canaan were etched in the minds of the Jewish people before they received the Torah at Mount Sinai. But philosophy aside, the unshaken conviction in their eventual repatriation to the birthplace of their history has been the engine behind Jewish endurance and hopes throughout their turbulent journey that started with the Roman expulsion in A.D. 70.

More important, shared history, not religion, is today the primary uniting force behind the secular, multiethnic society of Israel. The majority of its members do not practice religious laws and do not believe in divine supervision or the afterlife. The same applies to American Jewry, which is likewise largely secular. Identification with a common historical ethos, culminating in the re-establishment of the state of Israel, is the central bond of Jewish collectivity in America.

There are, of course, Jews who are non-Zionists and even anti-Zionists. There are also Jews who find it difficult to defend their identity against the growing viciousness of anti-Israel propaganda.

But these are marginal minorities at best; the vital tissues of Jewish identity today feed on Jewish history and its natural derivatives - the state of Israel, its struggle for survival, its cultural and scientific achievements and its relentless drive for peace.

Given this understanding of Jewish nationhood, anti-Zionism is in many ways more dangerous than anti-Semitism.

First, anti-Zionism targets the most vulnerable part of the Jewish people, namely, the Jewish population of Israel, whose physical safety and personal dignity depend crucially on maintaining Israel’s sovereignty. Put bluntly, the anti-Zionist plan to do away with Israel condemns 5.5 million human beings, mostly refugees or children of refugees, to eternal defenselessness in a region where genocidal designs are not uncommon.

Second, modern society has developed antibodies against anti-Semitism but not against anti-Zionism. Today, anti-Semitic stereotypes evoke revulsion in most people of conscience, while anti-Zionist rhetoric has become a mark of academic sophistication and social acceptance in certain extreme yet vocal circles of U.S. academia and media elite. Anti-Zionism disguises itself in the cloak of political debate, exempt from sensitivities and rules of civility that govern inter-religious discourse, to attack the most cherished symbol of Jewish identity.

Finally, anti-Zionist rhetoric is a stab in the back to the Israeli peace camp, which overwhelmingly stands for a two-state solution. It also gives credence to enemies of coexistence who claim that the eventual elimination of Israel is the hidden agenda of every Palestinian.

It is anti-Zionism, then, not anti-Semitism, that poses a more dangerous threat to lives, historical justice and the prospects of peace in the Middle East.

Judea Pearl is a professor at UCLA and the president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation. This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.israel22mar22,0,72685.story

____________________________________________________________________________________

Terrorists - justifier Rashid Khalidi has a "new" book - yet he's the same old "average Arab racist"

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:08:57 EDT

Terrorists - justifier Rashid Khalidi has a "new" book - yet he's the same old "average Arab racist"

Rashid Khalidi (on c-span 2, books) (Author: 'Sowing Crisis') wants us to believe that Islamic republic of Iran is "not" linked to the terror organizations: Hamas, Hezbollah and that these groups have "legitimate" concerns.

Desperate as he is to act as if he's on a 'research' row and making a show of someone who's really "looking at the region from a broader angle", he did talk at first quite smoothly, dancing around and mentioning "other" problems we the USA have (supposedly) created in the region, like Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran (no, he didn't mention Carter's role in indirectly overthrowing the Shah, that led to the current Islamofascistic totalitarianism), you almost thought that Rashid might really be an academic, in the real sense of the word.

But as an average Arab Muslim "academic" he can never escape his burning Arab-racism against the Jews, though polishing his way to the maximum, he had to come to his essential venomous point, all in all, his punch line is really, the same old hateful cliche theme, "It's all Israel's fault", especially towards the end, when he was asked some questions, you could see how he was "lit" as if by a switch that turns on the Arab "moderates" hatred flames - they can never seem to resist, and fall into it each and every time.To his credit, most Arab propagandists are less patient... you don't have to wait even that long to see their outbursts.It was a small room, filled by either Arabs, or the gullible, one Arab "American" journalist is even a brazen open Jihadists-Hamas-Hezbollah supporter, none has asked about his propaganda statement that Iran fears Israel's nukes - as a "reason" for why they might be pursuing nuclear weapons, no one has asked the obvious: Did (democratic) Israel ever threaten to wipe out (oppressive) Iran like the Islamic fascist genocidal Republic did? or did Israel ever attack Iran like Iran attacked Israel via Hezbullah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad?

Never mind his Pro-Jihad statement defending Hamas, Hezbollah, portraying them as "political" movements with "concerns", and no one was refuting him - pointing to the true nature of these Jihadists that openly declare their real goal - to erase Israel.If you were to turn in towards the end, all you could hear is repeated word "occupation", more than a few times... (as you know), all crimes under the sun are all washed by this excuse, used by the children of Arab immigrants, (that have invaded the land of Israel - "Palestine," since the 1800's), and is being heard by him, as by any Arab "journalist" like a spiral.

_______________________

Related:
Khalidi's New Book and Old Story
http://myrightword.blogspot.com/2009/03/khalidis-new-book-and-old-story.html

Solomonia Archive: Columbia Watch: Rashid Khalidi On the other hand, this is Rashid Khalidi, and he does represent Columbia ... .
http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archives/009032.shtml

Rashid Khalidi's Appointment at Columbia University...
http://www.danielpipes.org/1234/rashid-khalidis-appointment-at-columbia-university

Jan 20, 2009 ... Hamas's Academic Cheerleaders [incl. Hamid Dabashi, Rashid Khalidi, Fawaz Gerges, Joseph Massad, Muqtedar Khan, Mark LeVine, et al.
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/6708

Camera-Ready Victims [incl. Rashid Khalidi]: Hamas practices human sacrifice; the world shrugs. - Campus Watch.
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/6622

Beyond Gaza: An Abrahamic Peace

Curtis — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:16:36 EST

by Rabbi Arthur Waskow 01-29-2009

http://blog.sojo.net/2009/01/29/beyond-gaza-an-abrahamic-peace/

Beyond anguish, what can we say about the massive death and destruction in Gaza and the traumatic fear of falling rockets in Israel? How do we shape not just the temporary palliative of “cease-fire,” but a true alternative? Not just in pretty theory, but in political practicality?

The Obama administration could start by insisting that the Israeli and Egyptian governments open the borders of Gaza to shipments of food and medicine and fuel, while improving the prevention of importing weapons. At the same time, it could refuse to supply Israel with white phosphorus and other weapons that the Israeli government illegally used against the civilian population of Gaza.

But such changes –- only the beginning –- will not happen without public demand for change from a new political alliance inside the U.S. and a new nonviolent campaign by Palestinians, Israelis, and Europeans.

First of all, Palestinians could change reality on the ground by mounting vigorous, assertive, nonviolent resistance to the blockade/embargo. In the weeks just before the invasion of Gaza, small boatloads of people were bringing food and medical supplies to Gaza, ignoring or violating the Israeli blockade. After the invasion began, two more such boats were forced to turn back by the Israeli Navy.

These “ship-ins” were building support in much of the world, pointing out the injustice and violence of the blockade. Instead of canceling the cease-fire and firing rockets once again, Hamas could have turned those boats into a multitude. They might have built an enormous popular pressure in Europe and the U.S. for an end to the blockade and negotiations between Israel, the various powers, and Hamas.

Even now, with or without support from Hamas, European doctors, academics, clergy, political leaders, and peace activists could sponsor a flotilla of “ship-ins.” And Palestinians who live in Israel and in the allegedly “annexed” East Jerusalem could start blockading Israeli roads in a strictly nonviolent way –- not even stone-throwing. They could and would be joined by some Israelis.

Such an effort to challenge in a new way the assumptions behind Israeli power could galvanize a new response from the world at large –- even from the United States. But even if such a nonviolent campaign does not emerge, there are the beginnings of a more conventional approach to peacemaking.

Any effort to heal the wounds of the Middle East must include the Palestinian-Israeli relationship but cannot stop there. For years, the Arab League, led by Saudi Arabia, has proposed a regional peace settlement that would bring peace to Israel in exchange for the recognition of a new and viable Palestinian state. The Israeli government, with support from the U.S. government, has ignored the proposal. But for many Israelis, this would actually be the fulfillment of the dream of a secure and peaceful life.

Can an Israeli government now say, “We are ready to join in these negotiations”? We are ready to deal with a new Palestinian government of national unity that includes Hamas, which obviously has considerable strength among the Palestinian community. For us the deal must include only very small symbolic numbers of Palestinian refugees returning to Israel itself, and control of the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Perhaps now, after the Gaza invasion, any Israeli government can do this and say that they have not rewarded terrorism, are not negotiating from weakness, have shown they can be bloody. But would they want to? That would require a deep rethinking because it would mean a serious commitment to ending the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as the blockade of Gaza. Settlers and other opponents of doing this, though fewer in numbers than those who will support it, will be much more intense in their opposition. So the government is likely to be paralyzed, refusing to do what is necessary for peace, resorting to old slogans and the institutional and cultural power of the military to justify paralysis.

So the necessary counterweight for this domestic paralysis will have to come from outside -– that is, the United States. Appointing George Mitchell, the weaver of the Irish peace settlement, as peace envoy to the Middle East is an excellent start. But it will mean little unless the U.S. adopts a whole new policy toward the region.

The alternative policy for the U.S. government would be to use the disaster of Gaza to insist on a regional Middle East peace conference; to insist that even a Netanyahu government of Israel and even a Hamas leadership of Gaza or Palestine take part and accept a decent peace; to connect the end of the U.S. occupation of Iraq with serious diplomacy with Iran and a political settlement of the Afghan agony; and to move swiftly off the fossil fuel addiction that drives a planetary disaster and drives American policy into corruption or conquest in the Middle Eastern oil pools.

Only the biggest response can meet the need. Half-measures, the normal response of governments facing complex conflict, will not work.

And what might make such a break with automatic U.S. policy possible? The presidency of an unusual person chanting “change” is not enough. There are only two clusters of power in the U.S. with enough passion about the Middle East to matter. One is Big Oil. The other is the ethnic and religious passion of American Christians, Jews, and Muslims. If sizeable parts of these groups could work together for such a policy, it might be possible.

For many Jews and Muslims, that is even harder now than it was a month ago. But for others, the shock of so much blood has already brought about unexpected alliances -– and could make it possible.

At the grassroots in some American communities, some Jews have joined with some Muslims in local demonstrations calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. The peace-oriented American Jewish organizations might be willing to take their previous positions one step further. They might be able to work with American Arabs, Muslims, Christians, and others to press the new administration toward a grand peace.

The building blocks for such a coalition now exist. Can they be mortared together? A roused Muslim-American community, not yet well organized for political action but speedily getting more so; the beginnings of an independent base in the Jewish community (Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, J Street, Americans for Peace Now, The Shalom Center, the Israel Policy Forum, Tikkun, Jewish Voice for Peace) that could draw strength from the majority of real live American Jews – who support such a result but whose politics are unvoiced by the big American Jewish organizations; mainstream Protestant groups that are raring to go and will be effective if they can focus on changing U.S. policy instead of parading their own personal purity as in the divestment campaigns, and if they have Jewish allies so as not to be accused (or accuse themselves) of anti-Semitism; a vague Roman Catholic support for the same result, which might be stimulated into action; black community support, pro-peace and ready to affirm Palestinian self-determination, but so far not focused on this issue because there are other urgencies and they feel the need for Jewish allies to address those urgencies; and non-religiously or ethnically identified progressives, if they can get over their habit of treating the word “Zionist” as a curse word and start clearly condemning terrorist attacks on civilians by the underdogs, as well as military attacks, occupation, and blockade by the uber-dogs.

The effort to shape such a Grand Abrahamic Alliance should begin now.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow is director of The Shalom Center, which voices a new prophetic agenda in Jewish, multireligious, and American life. He is co-author of The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, as well as the author of many books on Jewish thought and practice and U.S. public policy.

A Real Pro-Israel Policy Helps Palestine, Too

Curtis — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:09:47 EST

Stephen Zunes wrote this article as part of A Just Foreign Policy, the Summer 2008 issue of YES! Magazine. Link: http://www.yesmagazine.org/other/pop_print_article.asp?ID=2683

Peace between Israelis and Palestinians is possible悠sraeli security and Palestinian rights are not mutually exclusive, but rather each is impossible without the other.

The Palestinian Authority and virtually all the Arab states are now on record expressing their willingness to recognize Israel and to provide security guarantees in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands conquered in the June 1967 war. This would leave the Palestinians with just 22 percent of historic Palestine. Nonetheless, the U.S.-backed Israeli position is that the Palestinians should be allowed an independent 都tate・on even less territory and only in a series of non-contiguous cantons surrounded by Israel and with the Israeli government controlling the air space, water resources, and the movement of people and goods.

Unlike some earlier periods in Israel痴 past, the country痴 survival is no longer at stake. The Israeli military is far more powerful than any combination of Arab armies. Despite the threat of periodic shelling and suicide bombings from Islamic extremists, most Israelis are relatively secure within their country痴 internationally recognized borders. Where Israeli soldiers and civilians are most vulnerable is in the occupied Palestinian territories. In these areas, illegal Israeli settlements and roads 650;eserved for Jews only幼reate an apartheid-like situation, and make it extremely difficult for Israeli forces to defend against a population angry at the occupiers who have confiscated what is often their best land. Israel would be far more secure defending a clearly defined and internationally recognized border than an archipelago of illegal outposts within Palestinian territory.

It is the ongoing Israeli occupation and colonization of the West Bank, along with the siege of the Gaza Strip, which creates the hopelessness and desperation that breed extremist violence. Only when the occupation ends will the threat from Palestinian terrorism finally have a realistic chance of being controlled.

U.S. policy in this troubled region has become increasingly controversial, but it should not be criticized as being too 菟ro-Israel.・U.S.-backed Israeli policies are not only jeopardizing the human rights of their Arab victims, they are hurting Israel痴 legitimate interests as well.

撤eace・proposals that allow Israel to annex large swathes of occupied Palestinian territory様ike those the Clinton administration pushed at Camp David in 2000 and the Bush administration has been supporting subsequently幼annot provide rights or security to either side. A truly pro-Israel policy would maintain the U.S. commitment to the security and well-being of the Jewish state, but would insist that Israel end its occupation, withdraw from its illegal settlements, and allow for the emergence of a viable, contiguous, independent Palestinian state.

This may require that the United States apply pressure 768;uch as withholding military and economic aid擁f the Israeli government continues to violate its obligations under international humanitarian law. Such aid does not help Israel much anyway. Indeed, most of the more than $2 billion in annual 杜ilitary assistance・to Israel amounts to a credit line to American arms manufacturers and actually ends up costing Israelis two to three times that amount for personnel, training, and spare parts. The additional $2 billion in U.S. economic aid is little more than the interest Israel is required to pay American banks from loans for previous arms purchases.

Many of those in Washington who call themselves supporters of Israel are supporting Israel痴 hawks who are making the country more dependent upon the United States. This increases Israel痴 vulnerability by preventing it from recognizing its natural alliance with the world痴 Afro-Asian majority. Within Israel, there is a solid progressive minority that supports the necessary compromises for peace and a similar-sized militaristic minority that does not. Most Israelis are in the middle and, as Israeli scholar and peace activist Galia Golan describes it, 典hey will lean left when Israel is feeling pressure from the United States but lean right in situations like today when there is no U.S. pressure.・

The combination of Israeli technology, Palestinian entrepreneurship and industriousness, and Arabian oil wealth could result in an economic, political, and social transformation of the Middle East. This would be highly beneficial to the region痴 inhabitants, but not necessarily to powerful U.S. interests who benefit from the current policy of divide-and-rule. An Israel at peace with its neighbors would be far less likely to be willing to serve as a reliable ally in support of U.S. hegemonic designs in this critical region.

If the United States really wants to be a friend of Israel, the U.S. government must apply some 鍍ough love.・This would entail unconditional support for Israel痴 right to exist in peace and security, but with an insistence that Israel uphold its international obligations and withdraw its settlers and troops from the occupied territories. Only then can the violence end and peace become a reality. And only then will the United States be a true friend of Israel.

Stephen Zunes is a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, where he chairs the Middle East Studies program. He is the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage, 2003) and a member of the advisory board of the Tikkun Community. www.stephenzunes.org

At least one case of "Moderate" Arab Muslims' bigotry - defeated [Arabism's racism]

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 04:53:39 EST

At least one case of "Moderate" Arab Muslims' bigotry - defeated [Arabism's racism]

Bret Stephens on http://www.foxnews.com/journal/"hits & misses", The Fining of UAE over denial of visa to Israeli tennis player is a "defeat for bigotry"

WTA fines Dubai Open organisers after Israeli Shahar Peer denied visa - Feb 20, 2009 The Women's Tennis Association has fined the Dubai Open organisers $US300,000 ($A465,000) after the United Arab Emirates refused to grant a visa to Israeli ...

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,25086276-23209,00.html

Under-fire UAE likely to give Israel's Andy Ram a visa
Israeli doubles specialist Andy Ram is likely to be granted a visa by the United Arab Emirates to play in the Dubai Championships next week, which could prevent a major crisis for tennis...
"To discriminate as the UAE did against one player in this way smacks of bigotry and racism," the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations said in a statement. "This must be declared unacceptable by the WTA and all international sporting associations. As we learned in the past, failure to condemn such actions and take corrective measures, proves destructive to international sporting competition."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/atptour/4692024/Under-fire-UAE-likely-to-give-Israels-Andy-Ram-a-visa.html

Sponsors pull out of Dubai Open after UAE deny visa to Israeli
RACISM ROW: The Wall Street Journal Europe and the Tennis Channel have revoked their sponsorship of the WTA Dubai Open because the UAE denied a visa to Israeli player Shahar Peer.

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,25072951-5005401,00.html

Tennis: Racism Rears Its Ugly Head Shahar Peer is an Israeli tennis player. The United Arab Emirates barred her from participating in the Barclays Dubai tournament

http://ballhype.com/story/tennis_racism_rears_its_ugly_head/

United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has no diplomatic links with Israel, denied her an entry visa into the country. "To discriminate as the UAE did against one player in this way smacks of bigotry and racism,"

http://www.javno.com/en-sports/jewish-leaders-call-on-wta-to-sanction-dubai-event_235390

Will Obama’s stimulus plan work……… NO

Luth-fi Khakad — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:35:36 EST

Will Obama’s stimulus plan work……… NO

You don’t need to be great economist to figure it out. First look into why US went into this recession. Is it just irresponsible sub-prime lending by financial institution??? …….NO. That is just one of the superficial reasons which brought recession. The main reason is overall US foreign policies. For the US economy to sustain and grow, it has to do business with ALL over the world. The stimulus plan will create only short term growth. For long term sustained growth, it has to sell its products & services all over the world. To sell all over the world it has to make friends & allies. Thanks to US foreign polices over the years and mainly during George “W” Bush tenure, it has made more adversaries than allies. Even the last biggest recession in 1970’s came thanks to US foreign policy of unilaterally supporting Israel by air lifting more than 25,000 tons of military equipment for its war against its neighboring countries, which made them turn against US and block sale of oil to US. This time, its direct war with Iraq which cost it more than 600 billion and counting. Why did US did attack on Iraq when Atomic energy agencies had given it clean chit that it doesn’t have any nuclear war heads or WMD? (Till not a single was found). Effortless answer is to get rid of tyrant Saddam Hussein………..NO It was to demolish a country that was challenging the existence of Israel. US fought on behalf of Israel and itself into recession for second time. Zionist lobbies in US capitol is making US take those decision which just benefitting Israel become a more and more diabolic & regional terror, by which it not just making 57 Muslim countries adversary of US but also many other countries are becoming its foe. What is US getting in return from Israel …….. nothing except recessions & enemies. Till the time US does not close this hole in the economy, till will never grow to true potential and long term sustained growth.

In-depth Study: How much is US Tax payers are funding Israel????

Generous as it is, what Israelis actually got in U.S. aid is considerably less than what it has cost U.S. taxpayers to provide it. The principal difference is that so long as the U.S. runs an annual budget deficit, every dollar of aid the U.S. gives Israel has to be raised through U.S. government borrowing.

In an article in The Washington Report for December 1991/January 1992, Frank Collins estimated the costs of this interest, based upon prevailing interest rates for every year since 1949. I have updated this by applying a very conservative 5 percent interest rate for subsequent years, and confined the amount upon which the interest is calculated to grants, not loans or loan guarantees.

On this basis the $84.8 billion in grants, loans and commodities Israel has received from the U.S. since 1949 cost the U.S. an additional $49,936,880,000 in interest.

There are many other costs of Israel to U.S. taxpayers, such as most or all of the $45.6 billion in U.S. foreign aid to Egypt since Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979 (compared to $4.2 billion in U.S. aid to Egypt for the preceding 26 years). U.S. foreign aid to Egypt, which is pegged at two-thirds of U.S. foreign aid to Israel, averages $2.2 billion per year.

There also have been immense political and military costs to the U.S. for its consistent support of Israel during Israel's half-century of disputes with the Palestinians and all of its Arab neighbors. In addition, there have been the approximately $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees and perhaps $20 billion in tax-exempt contributions made to Israel by American Jews in the nearly half-century since Israel was created.

Even excluding all of these extra costs, America's $84.8 billion in aid to Israel from fiscal years 1949 through 1998, and the interest the U.S. paid to borrow this money, has cost U.S. taxpayers $134.8 billion, not adjusted for inflation. Or, put another way, the nearly $14,630 every one of 5.8 million Israelis received from the U.S. government by Oct. 31, 1997 has cost American taxpayers $23,240 per Israeli.

It would be interesting to know how many of those American taxpayers believe they and their families have received as much from the U.S. Treasury as has everyone who has chosen to become a citizen of Israel. But it's a question that will never occur to the American public because, so long as America's mainstream media, Congress and president maintain their pact of silence, few Americans will ever know the true cost of Israel to U.S. taxpayers.

The only members of Congress who even suspect the full total of U.S. funds received by Israel each year are the privileged few committee members who actually mark it up. And almost all members of the concerned committees are Jewish, have taken huge campaign donations orchestrated by Israel's Washington, DC lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), or both. These congressional committee members are paid to act, not talk. So they do and they don't.

The same applies to the president, the secretary of state, and the foreign aid administrator. They all submit a budget that includes aid for Israel, which Congress approves, or increases, but never cuts. But no one in the executive branch mentions that of the few remaining U.S. aid recipients worldwide, all of the others are developing nations which either make their military bases available to the U.S., are key members of international alliances in which the U.S. participates, or have suffered some crippling blow of nature to their abilities to feed their people such as earthquakes, floods or droughts.

Benefits to Israel of U.S. Aid
Since 1949 (As of November 1, 1997)

Foreign Aid Grants and Loans
$74,157,600,000

Other U.S. Aid (12.2% of Foreign Aid)
$9,047,227,200

Interest to Israel from Advanced Payments
$1,650,000,000

Grand Total
$84,854,827,200

Total Benefits per Israeli
$14,630

Cost to U.S. Taxpayers of U.S.
Aid to Israel

Grand Total
$84,854,827,200

Interest Costs Borne by U.S.
$49,936,680,000

Total Cost to U.S. Taxpayers
$134,791,507,200

Total Taxpayer Cost per Israeli
$23,240

Since 1992, the U.S. has offered Israel an additional $2 billion annually in loan guarantees. Congressional researchers have disclosed that between 1974 and 1989, $16.4 billion in U.S. military loans were converted to grants and that this was the understanding from the beginning. Indeed, all past U.S. loans to Israel have eventually been forgiven by Congress, which has undoubtedly helped Israel's often-touted claim that they have never defaulted on a U.S. government loan. U.S. policy since 1984 has been that economic assistance to Israel must equal or exceed Israel's annual debt repayment to the United States. Unlike other countries, which receive aid in quarterly installments, aid to Israel since 1982 has been given in a lump sum at the beginning of the fiscal year, leaving the U.S. government to borrow from future revenues. Israel even lends some of this money back through U.S. treasury bills and collects the additional interest.

In addition, there is the more than $1.5 billion in private U.S. funds that go to Israel annually in the form of $1 billion in private tax-deductible donations and $500 million in Israeli bonds. The ability of Americans to make what amounts to tax-deductible contributions to a foreign government, made possible through a number of Jewish charities, does not exist with any other country. Nor do these figures include short- and long-term commercial loans from U.S. banks, which have been as high as $1 billion annually in recent years.

Total U.S. aid to Israel is approximately one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though Israel comprises just .001 percent of the world's population and already has one of the world's higher per capita incomes. Indeed, Israel's GNP is higher than the combined GNP of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. With a per capita income of about $14,000, Israel ranks as the sixteenth wealthiest country in the world; Israelis enjoy a higher per capita income than oil-rich Saudi Arabia and are only slightly less well-off than most Western European countries.

AID does not term economic aid to Israel as development assistance, but instead uses the term "economic support funding."

For the fiscal year ending in September 30, 1997, the U.S. has given Israel $6.72 billion: $6.194 billion falls under Israel's foreign aid allotment and $526 million comes from agencies such as the Department of Commerce, the U.S. Information Agency and the Pentagon. The $6.72 billion figure does not include loan guarantees and annual compound interest totalling $3.122 billion the U.S. pays on money borrowed to give to Israel. It does not include the cost to U.S. taxpayers of IRS tax exemptions that donors can claim when they donate money to Israeli charities. (Donors claim approximately $1 billion in Federal tax deductions annually. This ultimately costs other U.S. tax payers $280 million to $390 million.)

Military aidIsrael has received more U.S. military assistance than any other country, both in terms of grant aid and military sales on a concessional basis. Since 1987, the U.S. has provided an average of $1.8 billion annually in the form of Foreign Military Sales (FMS), Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and funds to support research and development.[2]A bilateral memorandum of understanding was signed in January 2001, at the end of the Clinton administration, under which defense aid was increased to $2.4 billion annually from $1.8 billion, while the $1.2 billion of economic aid would be eliminated. This was predicated on the basis of the defense aid being increased by $60 million per year until the full amount was reached in 2008, while the economic aid is decreased by $120 million per year until eliminated. In 2007, the United States increased its military aid to Israel by over 25%, to an average of $3 billion per year for the following ten year period (starting at $2.550 billion for 2008, growing by $150 million each year) The package is scheduled to start October 2008, when regular economic aid to Israel's economy is to end. U.S. President George W. Bush assured Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the U.S. would help keep a "qualitative advantage" to Israel over other nations in the region

Israel, whose troubles arise solely from its unwillingness to give back land it seized in the 1967 war in return for peace with its neighbors, does not fit those criteria. In fact, Israel's 1995 per capita gross domestic product was $15,800. That put it below Britain at $19,500 and Italy at $18,700 and just above Ireland at $15,400 and Spain at $14,300.

All four of those European countries have contributed a very large share of immigrants to the U.S., yet none has organized an ethnic group to lobby for U.S. foreign aid. Instead, all four send funds and volunteers to do economic development and emergency relief work in other less fortunate parts of the world.

The lobby that Israel and its supporters have built in the United States to make all this aid happen, and to ban discussion of it from the national dialogue, goes far beyond AIPAC, with its $15 million budget, its 150 employees, and its five or six registered lobbyists who manage to visit every member of Congress individually once or twice a year.

AIPAC, in turn, can draw upon the resources of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, a roof group set up solely to coordinate the efforts of some 52 national Jewish organizations on behalf of Israel.

Among them are Hadassah, the Zionist women's organization, which organizes a steady stream of American Jewish visitors to Israel; the American Jewish Congress, which mobilizes support for Israel among members of the traditionally left-of-center Jewish mainstream; and the American Jewish Committee, which plays the same role within the growing middle-of-the-road and right-of-center Jewish community. The American Jewish Committee also publishes Commentary, one of the Israel lobby's principal national publications.

Perhaps the most controversial of these groups is B'nai B'rith's Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Its original highly commendable purpose was to protect the civil rights of American Jews. Over the past generation, however, the ADL has regressed into a conspiratorial and, with a $45 million budget, extremely well-funded hate group.

More recently, FBI raids on ADL's Los Angeles and San Francisco offices revealed that an ADL operative had purchased files stolen from the San Francisco police department that a court had ordered destroyed because they violated the civil rights of the individuals on whom they had been compiled. ADL, it was shown, had added the illegally prepared and obtained material to its own secret files, compiled by planting informants among Arab-American, African-American, anti-Apartheid and peace and justice groups.

The ADL infiltrators took notes of the names and remarks of speakers and members of audiences at programs organized by such groups. ADL agents even recorded the license plates of persons attending such programs and then suborned corrupt motor vehicles department employees or renegade police officers to identify the owners.

Although one of the principal offenders fled the United States to escape prosecution, no significant penalties were assessed. ADL's Northern California office was ordered to comply with requests by persons upon whom dossiers had been prepared to see their own files, but no one went to jail and as yet no one has paid fines.

Not surprisingly, a defecting employee revealed in an article he published in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs that AIPAC, too, has such "enemies" files. They are compiled for use by pro-Israel journalists like Steven Emerson and other so-called "terrorism experts," and also by professional, academic or journalistic rivals of the persons described for use in black-listing, defaming, or denouncing them. What is never revealed is that AIPAC's "opposition research" department, under the supervision of Michael Lewis, son of famed Princeton University Orientalist Bernard Lewis, is the source of this defamatory material.

But this is not AIPAC's most controversial activity. In the 1970s, when Congress put a cap on the amount its members could earn from speakers' fees and book royalties over and above their salaries, it halted AIPAC's most effective ways of paying off members for voting according to AIPAC recommendations. Members of AIPAC's national board of directors solved the problem by returning to their home states and creating political action committees (PACs).

Most special interests have PACs, as do many major corporations, labor unions, trade associations and public-interest groups. But the pro-Israel groups went wild. To date some 126 pro-Israel PACs have been registered, and no fewer than 50 have been active in every national election over the past generation.

An individual voter can give up to $2,000 to a candidate in an election cycle, and a PAC can give a candidate up to $10,000. However, a single special interest with 50 PACs can give a candidate who is facing a tough opponent, and who has voted according to its recommendations, up to half a million dollars. That's enough to buy all the television time needed to get elected in most parts of the country.

Even candidates who don't need this kind of money certainly don't want it to become available to a rival from their own party in a primary election, or to an opponent from the opposing party in a general election. As a result, all but a handful of the 535 members of the Senate and House vote as AIPAC instructs when it comes to aid to Israel, or other aspects of U.S. Middle East policy.

There is something else very special about AIPAC's network of political action committees. Nearly all have deceptive names. Who could possibly know that the Delaware Valley Good Government Association in Philadelphia, San Franciscans for Good Government in California, Cactus PAC in Arizona, Beaver PAC in Wisconsin, and even Icepac in New York are really pro-Israel PACs under deep cover?

Hiding AIPAC's Tracks

In fact, the congress members know it when they list the contributions they receive on the campaign statements they have to prepare for the Federal Election Commission. But their constituents don't know this when they read these statements. So just as no other special interest can put so much "hard money" into any candidate's election campaign as can the Israel lobby, no other special interest has gone to such elaborate lengths to hide its tracks.

Although AIPAC, Washington's most feared special-interest lobby, can hide how it uses both carrots and sticks to bribe or intimidate members of Congress, it can't hide all of the results.

Anyone can ask one of their representatives in Congress for a chart prepared by the Congressional Research Service, a branch of the Library of Congress, that shows Israel received $62.5 billion in foreign aid from fiscal year 1949 through fiscal year 1996. People in the national capital area also can visit the library of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Rosslyn, Virginia, and obtain the same information, plus charts showing how much foreign aid the U.S. has given other countries as well.

Visitors will learn that in precisely the same 1949-1996 time frame, the total of U.S. foreign aid to all of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean combined was $62,497,800,000--almost exactly the amount given to tiny Israel.

According to the Population Reference Bureau of Washington, DC, in mid-1995 the sub-Saharan countries had a combined population of 568 million. The $24,415,700,000 in foreign aid they had received by then amounted to $42.99 per sub-Saharan African.

Similarly, with a combined population of 486 million, all of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean together had received $38,254,400,000. This amounted to $79 per person.

The per capita U.S. foreign aid to Israel's 5.8 million people during the same period was $10,775.48. This meant that for every dollar the U.S. spent on an African, it spent $250.65 on an Israeli, and for every dollar it spent on someone from the Western Hemisphere outside the United States, it spent $214 on an Israeli.

Shocking Comparisons

These comparisons already seem shocking, but they are far from the whole truth. Using reports compiled by Clyde Mark of the Congressional Research Service and other sources, freelance writer Frank Collins tallied for The Washington Report all of the extra items for Israel buried in the budgets of the Pentagon and other federal agencies in fiscal year 1993.Washington Report news editor Shawn Twing did the same thing for fiscal years 1996 and 1997.

They uncovered $1.271 billion in extras in FY 1993, $355.3 million in FY 1996 and $525.8 million in FY 1997. These represent an average increase of 12.2 percent over the officially recorded foreign aid totals for the same fiscal years, and they probably are not complete. It's reasonable to assume, therefore, that a similar 12.2 percent hidden increase has prevailed over all of the years Israel has received aid.

As of Oct. 31, 1997 Israel will have received $3.05 billion in U.S. foreign aid for fiscal year 1997 and $3.08 billion in foreign aid for fiscal year 1998. Adding the 1997 and 1998 totals to those of previous years since 1949 yields a total of $74,157,600,000 in foreign aid grants and loans. Assuming that the actual totals from other budgets average 12.2 percent of that amount, that brings the grand total to $83,204,827,200.

But that's not quite all. Receiving its annual foreign aid appropriation during the first month of the fiscal year, instead of in quarterly installments as do other recipients, is just another special privilege Congress has voted for Israel. It enables Israel to invest the money in U.S. Treasury notes. That means that the U.S., which has to borrow the money it gives to Israel, pays interest on the money it has granted to Israel in advance, while at the same time Israel is collecting interest on the money. That interest to Israel from advance payments adds another $1.650 billion to the total, making it $84,854,827,200.That's the number you should write down for total aid to Israel. And that's $14,346 each for each man, woman and child in Israel.

It's worth noting that that figure does not include U.S. government loan guarantees to Israel, of which Israel has drawn $9.8 billion to date. They greatly reduce the interest rate the Israeli government pays on commercial loans, and they place additional burdens on U.S. taxpayers, especially if the Israeli government should default on any of them. But since neither the savings to Israel nor the costs to U.S. taxpayers can be accurately quantified, they are excluded from consideration here.

Further, friends of Israel never tire of saying that Israel has never defaulted on repayment of a U.S. government loan. It would be equally accurate to say Israel has never been required to repay a U.S. government loan. The truth of the matter is complex, and designed to be so by those who seek to conceal it from the U.S. taxpayer.

Most U.S. loans to Israel are forgiven, and many were made with the explicit understanding that they would be forgiven before Israel was required to repay them. By disguising as loans what in fact were grants, cooperating members of Congress exempted Israel from the U.S. oversight that would have accompanied grants. On other loans, Israel was expected to pay the interest and eventually to begin repaying the principal. But the so-called Cranston Amendment, which has been attached by Congress to every foreign aid appropriation since 1983, provides that economic aid to Israel will never dip below the amount Israel is required to pay on its outstanding loans. In short, whether U.S. aid is extended as grants or loans to Israel, it never returns to the Treasury.

Israel enjoys other privileges. While most countries receiving U.S. military aid funds are expected to use them for U.S. arms, ammunition and training, Israel can spend part of these funds on weapons made by Israeli manufacturers. Also, when it spends its U.S. military aid money on U.S. products, Israel frequently requires the U.S. vendor to buy components or materials from Israeli manufacturers. Thus, though Israeli politicians say that their own manufacturers and exporters are making them progressively less dependent upon U.S. aid, in fact those Israeli manufacturers and exporters are heavily subsidized by U.S. aid.

Although it's beyond the parameters of this study, it's worth mentioning that Israel also receives foreign aid from some other countries. After the United States, the principal donor of both economic and military aid to Israel is Germany.

By far the largest component of German aid has been in the form of restitution payments to victims of Nazi atrocities. But there also has been extensive German military assistance to Israel during and since the Gulf war, and a variety of German educational and research grants go to Israeli institutions. The total of German assistance in all of these categories to the Israeli government, Israeli individuals and Israeli private institutions has been some $31 billion or $5,345 per capita, bringing the per capita total of U.S. and German assistance combined to almost $20,000 per Israeli. Since very little public money is spent on the more than 20 percent of Israeli citizens who are Muslim or Christian, the actual per capita benefits received by Israel's Jewish citizens would be considerably higher.

Till the time US does not close this hole in the economy, till will never grow to true potential and long term sustained growth.

...a world without Islam...

The Ranting Dream — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:57:46 EST

…quoting Graham Fuller’s thought provoking article which asserts that the ’terrorism’ that our corrupt goons in politics so desperately want us to believe as being at the ‘root’ of Islam, isn’t about Islam at all - it is about Western imperialism and oppression, and had Islam never existed, the world would look about the same as it does today…

...is peace out of reach???...

The Ranting Dream — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:30:17 EST

From CBS' 60 Minutes:...has peace in the Middle East become nothing more than a pipe dream? As Bob Simon reports, a growing number of Israelis and Palestinians feel that a two-state solution is no longer possible...

Secretary of State Clinton on Hamas

Joseph from Bronx, NY — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:37:26 EST

I cannot stand by and watch Ms. Clinton continue the legacy of the Bush administration when it comes to Israel. I was shocked this week when I saw that she intends to continue the support of Israel's blockade policy of Gaza and refuses to talk to Hamas until Hamas meets certain conditions. Hamas must accept Israel's right to exist and foreswear violence, but they have made indications already that they recognize a two-state solution as long as it is all voted on by referendum by the Palestinian people. How are we ever going to know what they are thinking if we don't sit down and talk with them? What happened to talking to our enemies? I guess all of this talk of "change" just goes out the window when it comes to Israel.

No peace will ever exist in the Middle East without sitting down with all interested parties in the region. I remember when Fatah was the pariah in the Middle East that we wouldn't deal with, and now, along with the PLO, they are the party that we and Israel have decided we will talk to at the exclusion of Hamas, even though it's clear that Hamas has tremendous support among Palestinians. This support was shown in democratic elections in which Hamas was voted into power by the Palestinians because they were unhappy with the representation they were getting by Fatah and the PLO.

Ms. Clinton has to learn to deal with her enemies as well as her friends if there is ever going to be peace in the Middle East. Especially when she is supporting a blockade that is starving Palestinians, turning Gaza into a concentration camp and violating international law.

Joseph Goldman - Bronx, NY

President Obama -- Stop Bombing Afghanistan

robe — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 11:05:30 EST

The U.S. military (illegally) bombed the hell out of Cambodia. This drove many refugees into Phnom Penh. In addition to killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, driving refuges into the capital city, it also encouraged huge numbers of peasant farmers to join the Khmer Rouge.

Besides killing innocent children and adults, the drone bombings are creating more enemies. Angry people are joining up with the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Please end all these wars!

How the BBC does it - legitimizing monsters in the M.E. (Hamas palestinian bloody Jihad, etc.)

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:26:28 EST

BBC's way of how to legitimize monsters in the middle east

Forget BBC bias, BBC is totally anti Israel committed, 100% on the side of most radical Islamic group on the middle east, the Genocidal Hamas!

When it interviewed (Jan 18, 2009) the Hamas spokesperson in Syria Osama Hamdan (the monster who said that the purpose of the "resistance" is to wipe off Israel) it handled him in such a manner as if he is a "normal" and average statesman.

Despite the 'big words' by the jihadi group who on top of all has that stupidity of arrogance that is only laughable if it weren't such a serious bunch of bloody murderous thugs, but BBC's audacity of replaying Hamas' phrase of: '"giving" Israel a week to pull out', as if we all don't know that Israel pulls out or back in, when it sees the situation fit to do so.

Later on (on the same day) BBC said: who is responsible for the civilian causalities in Gaza will be disputed between Israel and Hamas, (besides the fact that BBC never to explain that its all Hamas fault, but I want to talk about BCC's worse part than just bias anyway) again this "en par" equation between a democratic free for all unique country in the middle east (where an Arab can get to highest position in Israel's govt.) vs the Islamic group that oppresses any non Muslims and acts towards a totalitarian repressive Caliphate.

Historic moment in America

Antics — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:42:54 EST

I am a proud US naturalized citizen born and raised in India. I am glad to be born in the largest democracy and settled in the second largest democracy in the world. In the last five years I voted in national/state/local elections and I am proud of that.

Now I am looking forward to Obama's oath ceremony! It is indeed a historic moment!! I wish Obama good luck and extend my full support. He has a huge task in front of him and I hope he lives to the expectations of the millions who supported him for "change"

So far Obama has shown that he is a shrewd politician with his cabinet selection, not a real change! However, it is too early to judege his decisions.

I hope he brings in long lasting peace in Middle east, do damage control with Europe and extend a friendly hand to India.

Good Luck Mr. Obama!

Listen to the cries of the children

Compassion — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:30:40 EST

This morning I read the world blog post by an NBC producer and was brought to tears. We must demand in America a new direction in our policy towards the Middle East. We are not a nation that condones the shelling of schools and shelters where children are hiding from the ravages of war. Our tax dollars paid for the bullets which have ended up in the bodies of hundreds of young innocent children. We can no longer subscribe to this carnage. A new direction in American policy must be set. Here is the link to the NBC blog:

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/01/16/1747060.aspx

…a letter to the official opposition party of Canada…

The Ranting Dream — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:09:52 EST

...I have yet to see a single politician muster the courage to do the right thing and to 'tell the "TRUTH" like it is' - they've chosen to silently side with the 'spin' and let the status-quo be - either they're afraid of consequences to their political careers, or they're simply corrupt, or they're just plain stupid - or all of the above (and beyond) - whatever the reason, while I'm not shocked or surprised at the behavior of the puppet morons in politics, I'm disgusted at their complete lack of integrity and conscience...and to not have a SINGLE one of them telling the 'real' story behind this attack on humanity is just ticking me off...

Interfaith Vigil to End the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis - TOMORROW, Tues. 1/13

Hayyim Feldman — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:02:50 EST

Dear Friends,

There has been a growing cry for a community gathering about the Gaza crisis that calls for an end to the violence while expressing our anguish for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.

Boston-area Muslim, Christian, and Jewish leaders have jointly written a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and expressing our desire to demonstrate that during these most difficult of times we are prepared to stretch our hands out to each other. The statement with initial signatures can be found at the URL below.

Join us for a silent INTERFAITH VIGIL to make the declaration public and stand shoulder to shoulder with members of Boston’s Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities. Signs (drawn from the statement) will be provided. No other signs please.

So called "civilians" - Where does CNN get the "info" that there are "scores of civilians" in the op. targeting Hamas? Posted by The Reality Show on Monday, December 29, 2008 7:10:41 PM Where does CNN get the "info" that there are "scores of civilians" in

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:44:26 EST

Where on earth does CNN get the “information” that there are “scores of civilians” (Jim Clancy this morning) in the air strike targeting Hamas? CNN admits that they are not allowed into Gaza because of the danger, so they “rely” on Arab “journalists” but mainly on Palestinian sources in Gaza for info, oh well, because the Pallywood is a new thing? they have not been known to add dead bodies in Jenin or to fake images as a whole?

We realize that they have SOME kids dead, as this was Hamas’ (like Hezbollah's) intention when they fire rockets from most densely-populated houses, so that their graphic ‘shocking’ photos gets spread well in the “world propaganda arena”, but “scores” - out of the 300?

How do they know that it's not the 90% Islamic Hamas? Why would there be only 300 dead after 3 days of pounding warplanes if Israel really hadn't be careful NOT to hit at civilians?

Christmas, 'Palestinian' Muslims Oppress Bethlehem's Christians

Unknown user — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:57:23 EST

Xmas, 'Palestinian' Muslims Oppress Bethlehem's Christians

* Jihadists persecuting Palestinian Christians in Gaza

* Muslim grinches steal Bethlehem Christmas

* Christians persecuted in Bethlehem

* Bethlehem Christians fear neighbors A number of Christian families have finally decided to break their silence and talk openly about what they describe as Muslim persecution of the Christian minority in this city

Stark Choices for Obama

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:17:54 EST

Stark Choices for Obama

The Price of Expediency

By Col. DOUGLAS MacGREGOR @ counterpunch.org

President-elect Barack Obama confronts stark choices in U.S. foreign and defense strategy. A fourth Indo-Pakistani war is brewing, and this time, both states have nuclear weapons. Given the determination to commit more conventional ground forces to Afghanistan, a narco-state without a legitimate central government that shares an open border with Pakistan, choosing wisely is vital.

Today's world is different from the world of 1991 or 2001. Out side of the United States and Western Europe, nation-building with U.S. military power is a euphemism for imperialism. America can financial hegemony has collapsed. As seen in Iraq, the "total victory" construct as it equates to the imposition of Western-style government and a free-market economy subservient to the U.S. is in full retreat.

In the broader Middle East, as well as in most of Africa, Latin America and Asia, "damage control," not "total victory," is the most realistic goal for U.S. nation al security strategy..........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/macgregor12172008.html

Last week, at a meeting of his country’s ruling party, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accused Iran of “trying to devour the Arab states.”

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:53:21 EST

Iran ate my Caliphate

Posted on December 16, 2008 by Jeff Huber @ scholarsandrogues

Last week, at a meeting of his country’s ruling party, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accused Iran of “trying to devour the Arab states.” Don’t worry, Hosni. Iran won’t eat you. It can’t. It can’t sit on you either. It’s too far away.

What led Mubarak to say such a mean thing about Iran? Well, it seems that a bunch of Iranian students shouted a bunch of mean things at the Egyptian embassy in Tehran, including their apparently genuine wish that someone would hang Mubarak. The Iranian students shouted mean things about Mubarak because Egypt wouldn’t let the Iranian Red Crescent sneak around Israel’s blockade of the Gaza strip and deliver food and supplies to Palestinians, who have been reduced to eating grass.........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2008/12/16/iran-ate-my-caliphate/

The Drama Continues Between Israel and Palestine

Taylor B. — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:50:44 EST

Violence only breeds more violence, and that can be seen blatantly in Israel, Palestine and the occupied territories. There is a great need to understand the history of the violence in order to grasp a true understanding out what is taking place in those lands today.

Recently things have gotten much worse implying that serious attention needs to be devoted to the crisis before it sparks a larger controversy. Making the situation even more complex is the fact that when discussing Israel and Palestine the nation of Iran needs to be addressed as well.

Iran and Israel have been escalating what seems to be a "cold war" of sorts but, like every "cold war" there is an enormous chance that a true war will develop and this situation is no different. Recently Israel has ran war games simulating an attack on Iran and just a week ago Israel's leaders said they are prepared to attack Iran with or without United States support. Iran has also fueled the fire by testing several missiles and by their constant progression towards nuclear weapons. Iran's leaders have also called for the destruction of the Israeli state and their is wide speculation that Iran has been funding extremist groups in Palestine and the occupied territories.

Just last week Israel had a blockade on the Gaza strip punishing a whole population by the actions of a few. Journalists were only allowed back into the occupied territories a few days ago. Although recently Israeli police evicted Jewish families ,in the city of Hebron, from their home because it was illegally bought. The fifteen families are part of the settler movement that is ,an extreme right wing group, increasing encroaching on Palestinian land. Jewish extremists opened up fire on palestinians after an altercation as a result of the evictions served to the fifteen families. The Israeli high court order the evictions showing some signs that the government will be taking a harder stance towards extremist in their own country as well. There is an endless list of violence the breeding more violence in this region and something needs to be done soon.

Nobel Prize winner Mr. Martti Ahtisaari

Mike Hulden — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:23:13 EST

Former Finnish president of Finland and Nobel Price winner

Mr. Martti Ahtisaari : "I hope that the new president of the

United States, who will be sworn in next month, will give

high priority to the Middle East conflict during his first year

in office."

Sixty years ago, on 11 December 1948, the United Nations General Assembly passed an important resolution about Israel and the Palestinians.

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:51:06 EST

The Legacy of Resolution 194 The UN Resolution That Time Forgot

By GHADA KARMI

Sixty years ago, on 11 December 1948, the United Nations General Assembly passed an important resolution about Israel and the Palestinians. It called on the newly formed Israeli state to repatriate the displaced Palestinians “wishing to live in peace with their neighbours…at the earliest practicable date”, and to compensate them for their losses. A Conciliation Commission was set up to oversee the repatriation of the returnees. Though never implemented and frequently ignored since then, Resolution 194 has haunted the Israeli-Palestinian peace process ever since, and has proved the most insurmountable obstacle in all peace negotiations. It is the legal basis for the ‘right of return’, to which Palestinians have clung for sixty years.

Far from this fundamental plank of the Palestinian cause being protected and preserved, it has been used like a political football between the parties, sometimes to attack, sometimes to defend, and now as something to bargain over. Through this process the discourse about the right of return has become deliberately ambiguous or vague, responding to Israel’s anxieties. To assert, against this background of appeasement, that the right of return is the sine qua non of any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem is viewed today as ‘unrealistic’ and old-fashioned, even an obstacle to peace, as if the passage of sixty years had disqualified the Palestinians from entitlement to their homeland. Israel, conversely, shows no such ambiguity in its perennial and unambiguous rejection of the right of return..........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/karmi12092008.html

Obama Urged to Quickly Engage Iran, Syria

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:21:11 EST

Obama Urged to Quickly Engage Iran, Syria

by Jim Lobe @ antiwar.com

The incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama should move quickly to engage Iran without preconditions and to promote an Israeli-Syrian peace accord, according to two veteran Middle East experts whose views are likely to have influence over Obama's just-announced foreign policy team.

Obama should also "make a serious effort from the outset to promote progress between Israel and the Palestinians," propose its own solutions to the parties "sooner rather than later," and enlist the active support of the Arab League in its success, according to Richard Haass and Martin Indyk, senior Middle East aides under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, respectively.

They also called for Obama to consider providing nuclear guarantees and enhanced anti-ballistic missile defense capabilities to Israel if negotiations to curb Iran's nuclear program fail or do not achieve quick success in order to dissuade the Jewish state from attacking Tehran's nuclear facilities on its own. Such an umbrella could also extend to Washington's Arab allies in part to prevent a regional arms race........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=13849

Try Tough Love, Hillary

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:30:46 EST

Try Tough Love, Hillary

By ROGER COHEN @ nytimes.com, December 1, 2008

Imagine Ehud Olmert, the outgoing Israeli prime minister, saying this to Barack Obama:

“The United States has been wrong to write Israel a blank check every year; wrong to turn a blind eye to the settlements in the West Bank; wrong not to be more explicit about the need to divide Jerusalem; wrong to equip us with weaponry so sophisticated we now believe military might is the answer to all our problems; and wrong in not helping us reach out to Syria. Your chosen secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said during the campaign that ‘the United States stands with Israel, now and forever.’ Well, that’s not good enough. You need to stand against us sometimes so we can avoid the curse of eternal militarism.”

Perhaps that seems unimaginable. But Olmert has already said something close to this. In a frank September interview with the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, reprinted this month by The New York Review of Books, the Israeli leader chose to exit with a mea culpa for his country’s policies.........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/opinion/01cohen.html?_r=1&hp

Madam Secretary Clinton and the Middle East

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:12:19 EST

Change? What Change?

Madam Secretary Clinton and the Middle East

By JOSHUA FRANK

It’s official.

Barack Obama has chosen Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State; a choice that confirms US foreign policy is not about to change significantly under the forthcoming Democratic administration. The US will continue to pander to Israel and the War on Terror will still be the rallying cry for our foreign interventions.

In a letter to her constituents in November 2005, Clinton.......

........hoped contingents of US soldiers would remain in the region with “quick-strike capabilities…This will help us stabilize that new Iraqi government,” she attested. “It will send a message to Iran that they do not have a free hand in Iraq despite their considerable influence and personal and religious connections there.”

Apparently messages carry more weight when they are delivered at gunpoint. “Watch out Tehran,” Hillary seems to be declaring, “I’ll strike quick.”

As one of the top Democratic recipients of pro-Israel funds for the 2006 election cycle, pocketing over $83,000, Clinton now has Iran in her crosshairs.........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/frank12012008.html

What the Clinton Appointment Means (according to Justin Raimondo)

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:33:26 EST

And why we won't see any change in American foreign policy

by Justin Raimondo @ antiwar.com

The American people are sick and tired of the Bush era, and they are counting the days until Barack Obama is inaugurated. The reasons for this are manifold, of course, but the one that concerns us especially here at Antiwar.com is the vital question of war and peace. American foreign policy had become so relentlessly aggressive, and with such disastrous results, that John McCain's alleged national security credentials were moot. Even if the economy hadn't tanked so spectacularly at a crucial point in the election season, I contend that Obama would've won in a landslide anyway. And it surely didn't help when the author of our disastrous foreign policy, Vice President Dick Cheney, was wheeled out to issue his kiss-of-death endorsement: talk about the stab in the back!

In any case, what I really mean to say is that our crazed foreign policy was a major reason why Americans gave Obama such a stunning victory. There's just one problem: our foreign policy is going to remain pretty much the same.....

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13785

Will Hillary Clinton Seek Peace in Israel/Palestine?

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:14:17 EST

Will Hillary Clinton Seek Peace in Israel/Palestine?

by: Matt Stoller @ "Open Left"

If Clinton is considered to be Secretary of State, it's going to validate those who argued that there really was not much daylight between the two of them in the primary. She's a relatively hawkish Democrat whose policy decisions under the Bush administration were not good, and they tended to disagree on the role of diplomacy, but their voting records on Iraq were identical. That said, under a Democratic administration, both Clinton and her husband have the ability and credibility to work on the Israeli government and push it towards peace. I'm not up to date on Israeli politics so I don't know how possible this is, but domestically Americans are ready. While I often describe AIPAC as a problematic organization, what its rival J Street has really done is to broaden and diversify what it means to be pro-Israel.....

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=10004

No Signs of Change in Obama's Middle East Policies: The Irresponsibility of Appointing Hillary Clinton Secretary of State

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:40:25 EST

No Signs of Change in Obama's Middle East Policies

The Irresponsibility of Appointing Hillary Clinton Secretary of State

By BILL and KATHLEEN CHRISTISON

In 2005 Hillary Clinton stood in Palestine and praised the apartheid wall that the government of Israel was building with large amounts of U.S. aid in furtherance of the Zionist goal of destroying one of the world’s peoples -- the Palestinians. This is the wall that the United Nations’ World Court has declared contrary to international law. And this is just one example of Hillary Clinton’s total support for all of Israel’s policies to oppress and eventually expel whatever elements of the Palestinian population remain west of the Jordan River..........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/christison11182008.html

PS. Senator Russ Feingold for Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (replacing Biden)

The Blue and White Elephant in the Oval Office: Dual Loyalties Will Doom Obama

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:43:01 EST

The Blue and White Elephant in the Oval Office

Dual Loyalties Will Doom Obama

By RANNIE AMIRI

"Obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn't he be? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House."
- Dr. Benjamin Emanuel, father of Rahm Emanuel, predicting his son’s impact in an Obama administration (Ma'ariv, 6 Nov. 2008).

History will record the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign to have been one in which American Arabs and Muslims were politically marginalized, ostracized and disparaged like no time before. Contrary to initial expectations, those bruised sensibilities are unlikely to find in President-elect Barack Obama the salve so desperately needed.

The first hint of future disappointment came with the realization that although his background and upbringing inspired malicious rumors and innuendos, he did little if anything to rebuke their bigoted nature. After winning the presidency, the decision to employ the services of the Israel-firsters was a tell-tale sign the wounds will be left to fester.........

Trickle Down Propaganda in the Middle East

hindy — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:30:44 EST

In order for any "Peace Agreement" in the Middle East to be effective and long lasting, it would appear to me that incendiary rhetoric against Jews and Infidels emanating from the minarets, Arab media and the internet must cease. Calling Jews and Americans "pigs" and calling for the elimination of Jews, America and the State of Israel is the kind of dangerous trickle-down propaganda that infuses the mind-set of citizens of these "fundamentalist regimes" and elevates "hatred" to a kind of twisted idealism that would relegate any peace treaty to a "temporary" measure. Its not that they are "bad" people. Its just that living in unicultural countries without a free press and with no exposure to "others" generally leads to this kind of retrograde xenophobia.

Lasting peace requires a humanistic groundwork based on 21st century principles of inclusion and respect of all peoples - regardless of their religion, race or ethnic backgrounds. At the moment that's a far cry from the "racist, Nazi-like" declarations that are currently being propogated by countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq (despite a US presence), Lybia, some radical forces in Palestine and others.

Maybe, under your worldly influence, these governments can be encouraged to change their "racist" mantras. Failing that, these countries may finally come to their senses when the United States and other western nations have developed "alternative green-energy sources" and we are no longer beholden to their hegemony on oil.

As a Jew, who is very much in favour of a just and lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis, I hope that you, Barack, as a brilliant, worldly and enlightened human being, will recognize the hazards of this type of "institutionalized hate mongering" and work to bring true peace to all human beings.

As a person who supported, trusts and believes in your human decency, I know that you will make this request a part of your peace efforts.

Good Luck to you Barack. I don't expect miracles. But I believe that you, more than anyone else, can point the world in the direction of enlightenment. Millions of us all over the world can hardly wait for your "inauguration".

Arabized media in the west, the CNN case

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:11:19 EST

Arabized media in the west, the CNN caseNov. 2008

Arabized media in the west, the CNN case.

Bombarding propaganda

Qatar is one of CNN's major financier, (Qatar airlines and its financial center) you are getting sick of the repeated advertisement of Arab media tools how so hypocritically they show you their "equality" for everyone, covering the awful truth about oppressing all minorities, all those that are not Arab in the middle east who the supremacists Arabs think its' all "theirs" (ironic funny enough Qatar airlines shows in its ad a green eyed white face of a woman...).

'Inside the middle east'

For years, the Syrian born Hala Gorani was going up ranks her "inside the middle east" is still going strong.'Inside the middle east' sponsored by the Egyptian telecom 'Orascom' (who tells us over an over again in its silly advertisement that "we share the same belief" creating the impression as if Christians and Jews -- the few left after the racist expulsion in the late 1940s -- are not discriminated in Apartheid Arab Muslim middle east) is basically an Arabic program that its aim is to hide its oppressive tyranny, in a region where no Arab country is true democratic or free (in the true sense, including the Iranian/Syrian occupied Lebanon - the terrorized Hezbollahland), by exaggerating true or untrue stories that can be used to idolize Arab middle east.'Inside the middle east' will never show you the true (story of) repressed conditions of non Arabs such as: Kurds, Berbers, Jews, or non Muslims such as: Copts in Egypt, etc.

Ugly 'Palestinianism'

Also appearing in that Arab program which is only to "educate Americans only about the cherry picked stories - Arabs want us to see"... is Ben Wederman, the notorious west bank based CNN terribly biased journalist, who never seems to find a spot to reveal the oppression of 'Palestinians' upon their people: whether its out of blind radical Islamic motivation or typical Arabisn dictatorship, or the Islamic apartheid against the minority Christian Arab community that live in fear and under persecution, or the genocide campaign that is rampant among most 'Palestinians to "eradicate" the "Zionist entity" or about the epidemic of 'honor killing' crimes, or about corruptive leadership that robs its own people ever since Arafat era, but Ben Wederman doesn't see any "use" in reporting these burning issues, he is instead a great spokesman for the 'Palestinian cause', an example from Nov 7-8 (2008), Ben had a program about "olives", supposedly just talking about olive oil... soon you saw the blatant despicable 'Palestinianism' as the Arab farmer talked about how "old" his tradition is and how the land is so "his"... nothing about Arab immigration into Israel-Palestine of course, that's a no-no mention in rewriting - Palestine.He had his camera ready to film Israeli police dispersing a crowd that protested illegal Arab infiltrators into Jewish land... (the true story Ben didn't tell you) when he was asked politely by the police to evacuate the area he refused (after all, he knows very well he wouldn't dare refuse any order from the 'Palestinian' police... what he never bothers explaining his "situation" living in the west bank, how "neutral" a journalist can be), only the 3rd time when he made sure he had enough to portray the Israeli restrained cops as "bad occupiers" he said he is "going"...

As if it wasn't enough with Arab tyrants' regimes "culture" infesting the mainstream media in the US, CNN made yet another Arab program, "MME" Market middle east, by the rich Arabian Dubai financial center DIFC, who pays a man by the name of J. Defterios, 'paid' to glorify its host (besides the weekly Friday Arabist program, here's an example, on Nov 16 2008 at the same time the G20 summit was still on, he "revealed" to us that the Gulf Arabs who combine 1.5 triillion dollar of GDP, "lost" 1.5 billion since June peak season, what a "creative" way of portraying the oil masters that with out any shame exploit the world's need for energy overcharging all of us as "losing" because they lowered a bit their outrageous overcharge as soon as they saw westerners consuming less of it...), where one of the very first opening broadcasts was "naturally" about "how to help the "poor", "poor" "Palestinians" (no, not how the filthy rich Gulf oil Arabs should help, not those Arab regimes that have encouraged the Arabs --not yet called "palestinians"-- in 1948 to evacuate Israel-Palestine, but how the west should rather help them), those self destructive guys, the violence-happy crowd, where bigoted Jihadism and militant racist Arabism was always mainstream, ever since the Mufti Al-Husseini led the massacres in the 1920's - the "creme de la creme" of the middle east.

The middle east insider

Piercing through the thick cloud obscuring any clarity, clotted by the oily international Arab lobby...

There's no room there for criticism of call for change in the diabolic 'Palestinian' society to leave hatred and terror behind and to choose education for their children and 'normal life' for themselves.There's no space for criticism of all Arab regimes that rule their people with an iron fist, Arabian middle east where synonymous with torture, no, not the light type attributed to the CIA in Gtmo., but the darkest kind, where most of all: Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran (and its Hezbullah thugs) & Egypt are doing it with passion and special "tender love".That's true Islamism & Arabism, to keep committing the crimes in the middle east and to show [fake] unity outside, that's the true "middle east insider".

Clinton to State? Is Mid-East Peace Back On The Table?

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:19:09 EST

Clinton to State? Is Mid-East Peace Back On The Table?

By: bmaz @ fireddoglake.com

There has been a lot of chatter the last 48 hours or so about Obama considering Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State. The chatter practically exploded this afternoon with the report that the President-Elect had formally offered the job to her and she was considering the offer.

Most all of the discussion to date as to why Barack Obama might be so motivated has centered on the "Team of Rivals" aspect and the general cache of the Clinton name internationally and diplomatically.

Perhaps the best take in this regard was stated by Ian Welsh at FDL:

Clinton does offer one big advantage as Secretary of State: the Clinton name. The Clintons are loved overseas, and there is no one else in America (other than her husband, who will presumably be by her side in any case) who would demonstrate more clout than having Hilary Clinton arrive in your country. Likewise she already has relationships with many world leaders and doesn't have to build up that trust from scratch. Clinton can hit the ground running, and assuming Obama makes it clear that he's backing her, she can speak with more authority than perhaps anyone else could, on his behalf.........
ENTIRE POST - http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/11/14/clinton-to-state-is-mid-east-peace-back-on-the-table/

Tracking Legislation. Effecting Change.

Sheldon from Doylestown — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:02:28 EST

Commit yourself to identifying and tracking legislation, practices, and policies that are helping to end the war in Iraq or are furthering it, and commit yourself to writing letters to the editor and to your lawmakers that carefully and tactfully detail why this war must end.

Olmert: Israel must return to 1967 borders

Sheldon from Doylestown — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:20:26 EST

Olmert: Israel must return to 1967 borders

(Haaretz)

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1036118.html

By Shahar Ilan and Nadav Shragai

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took advantage of yesterday's special Knesset marking the 13th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin to call for territorial withdrawals in all disputed areas and to denounce violence on the part of Jewish settlers.

"We must give up Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem and return to the core of the territory that is the State of Israel prior to 1967, with minor corrections dictated by the reality created since then," he said.

"Many Israelis viciously beat up Palestinians seeking to harvest olives as they have for centuries, and there is no end [to it]. Young Israelis, smitten by messianic dreams, hit our soldiers, breaking their bones and threatening their lives, and no one stops them," Olmert said. "I will not permit this to continue," he promised.

Olmert also said that, "Every government will need to tell the truth, which unfortunately will require us to tear out many parts of the homeland in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights." Addressing the settlers, he said: "You, too, will have do carry out a moral reckoning and reach a decision."

The National Union-National Religious Party Knesset whip Uri Ariel and fellow party MK Aryeh Eldad left the plenum in protest. "We cannot tolerate the fact that a failed prime minister, who is accused of corruption, uses the little free time he has left between police interviews to call for the destruction of the Jewish settlement enterprise in Israel," Eldad said.

Likud whip Gideon Sa'ar accused Olmert of "cynically exploiting a state ceremony for a political speech in the spirit of the extreme left."

Three hours earlier, Foreign Minister and Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni told a meeting of party MKs that "the murder of a prime minister in Israel must not be a subject of political disputes. [Rabin] was the prime minister of us all."

Yesterday was the last day of deliberations in the Knesset plenum before the election hiatus. Party whips postponed the dissolution of the Knesset session by a few days in order to hold the Rabin memorial.

The denunciation of attacks by Jewish settlers on Israel Defense Forces soldiers and pointed criticism of the media for conducting interviews with Rabin's killer, Yigal Amir, dominated yesterday's Knesset deliberations.

"We cannot tolerate the calls being heard today to hurt the prime minister or IDF soldiers. We will take immediate action against lawbreakers and inciters," opposition leader and Likud Chairman MK Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset.

Knesset Speaker MK Dalia Itzik (Labor) said she was astonished by the competition between the television networks over broadcasting the interview with Amir. "The name of the despicable murderer must not be mentioned among us," Itzik said. "This is not an issue of freedom of expression, rather it's an attempt by the murderer to win legitimacy. Let him rot in prison, don't give him a stage, throw him into the garbage pail of history."

In large measure Olmert's Knesset speech yesterday echoed his remarks at the state memorial for Rabin earlier in the day at Jerusalem's Mt. Herzl, where Rabin is buried. He called for giving up Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and returning to the 1967 borders, with slight amendments.

"We have no choice but to give up, with great torment, parts of our homeland of which we dreamed for generations of yearning and prayers," Olmert said. "For a generation an increasingly sharp disagreement has been raging in Israel over what should be here. Since the murder the dispute has only become fiercer.

"Rabin was not thrilled about the decision, he was tormented before Oslo, he hesitated about the agreement and was filled with doubt even after making a decision - not out of illusions or false hopes - but rather he decided to go in a direction that more and more people today are willing to accept," Olmert said.

President Shimon Peres addressed recent settler violence in his remarks at Mt. Herzl. "There is a small minority of reckless, unrestrained people who boldly defy the state's authority, attack Palestinians just for being Palestinian and challenge the law-enforcement mechanisms that, among others, protect them, too.

"We must isolate and expel this violent and dangerous minority," Peres added, "and we mustn't be silent in the face of their incitement. We cannot tolerate the acts of vandalism and violence. It is as though they are a state within a state. It is the responsibility of the state to carry out justice without fear - the honor of Israel and the strength of its democracy and lawfulness depends on it."

Obama in MySpace

Unknown user — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:33:54 EST

Thousands of miles from my space, a change is happening that will be recorded forever in history. The Americans have made a daring choice of going beyond the race and prioritizing what they all missed for the past 8 years: A leader that would bring them the pride that they deserve.

But how does that affect my life here? Obviously, foreign policy was among the least priorities that concerned the Americans when they voted. Ofcourse. Their country is in an economic turmoil. Economy should come first. But how are they concerned about the world's most conflict-ridden region, and one of the most furtile land for terrorism ? The Middle East awaits daring steps from the Obama administration, and though personally I do not expect much, there are a few things that make me feel a bit more secure:

Obama is willing to talk with Iran...and to pull the troops out of Iraq.

The world has to understand that the Middle East is a highly religiously oriented region. Religious divides, tensions and civic strifes have been going on ever since the war on Iraq started. Do we need a new conflict to highten the already-spiced-up tensions? Any war with Iran would be a recipe for a regional religious divide in the Middle East. Severe consequences follow that. And for someone like me living in a coutnry like Lebanon, where religion defines you and your weight in power, any thought of a conflict with Iran would make me feel like running away from this place. Even if I have to live in some kind of far-away-in-the-middle-of-nowhere island, its much safer than staying in a community fueled by religious tensions. I've been having that feeling for the past 5 years ever since the war on Iraq started. Thanks to Bush, bloodshed is all over the place in this region, and religious Sunni-Shiite divides have been materialized and people feel increasingly insecure more than anytime before. The fact that Obama plans to have a non-offensive, less-agressive attitude towards the issues at stake here make me feel *a bit more safe* to stay in My Space for the coming few years.

Apart from that, I do not expect much of a change. I'm clearly aware that neither my country nor the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is on top of Obama's priorities for his term. I am aware that we will be receiving less American attention...and I thank God for that. *sigh*

Nad

Blogging from Beirut, Lebanon

It's a new world after all?

International Affairs — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 12:47:17 EST

In this post I wish to address the affairs of the middle east. Ths is direct, truthful. It is open to suggestions, insight, and carefull planning. I think we as Americans have ignored the hope for a brighter and peaceful middle east. Placing all our bets on a single Allie of Israel has lead this nation and many other nations to hate the USA. That's right. Even this nation hates itself. I remember a time when I use to travel to so many countries, and when people knew you were american, they always wanted to greet you and wish they could live where you live. We were the envy of the world. In the past couple of decades a shift, and a rift has formed over this. Now as americans we travel to these places and we are looked at as the scum of the earth. Mind my words so direct please. But now we have a hope. A new leader. Fresh. And anew. Now the world has us again in thier eyes as the center of attention. Questions arise. So people talk in these over seas cafes and house holds. I've seen it personaly as I mingle with both the elite and country folk of these foreign nations. So now the nation here won't hate itself and others so much. And maybe it will end permanently some day.

So now it is our time, and our chance to make the world a better place. A chance for peace amongst enemies. A chance for growth and prosperity. For rich to help a poor man. And for a peace keeper to set a pace for hope to the world. For me it is in President Obama.

I can honestly for the first time see this once in a life time chance. I am well over forty years old, and seen all the prejudices in this country and abroad. I never voted before in my life. But I registered for the first time 3 months ago. And said, this was the man. And I voted for President Obama. May god bless him and his family and children, and all of his extended family, with the grace that god could ever give. And I pray may god give guidance to president Obama, and that he too will see what I have seen. May faith not be a issue, but a seed to promote friendships with all nations.

Remember that Kim Clement prophecy from April?

SRG_Legal — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:48:56 EST

April 2008 Kim Clement Prophecy about the Election
Pam Clark - The Journey List
Nov 6, 2008

Thanks to Angela Carter for forwarding this.
______
Kim Clement: Steve Shultz on Kim's OBAMA word:
'This is Not My 'Obama' Endorsement! It's Kim Clement's Prophecy Concerning Obama'
Note from Kim Clement's Assistant, A.T.
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 1:01 PM
Subject: Fwd: March 29, 08--Obama Prophecy
Steve,
Here is the transcribed and APPROVED Obama prophecy that Kim gave in Harrisburg, PA. A.T.

THE MIDDLE EAST
God says, 'There is a sway in the political arena; a change in your political world. Enough of this discussion about Jeremiah Wright.' God said, 'This makes no difference. It is a spirit that has endeavored to rock and sway the people and to divide them.' God said, 'I will sway it next week. Yes, I will, and because of Pennsylvania , I will raise up the man I want,' says the Lord, 'to rule and to reign and to declare victory in the Middle East .'

We declare victory in the Middle East tonight. We declare victory in America tonight.
For the Spirit of God says, 'Hear, oh people of Zion . Those who have been afraid in Zion , those who have been afraid in this nation--fear not! For your news media has intimidated you, and therefore, it is My turn. Next week, I will arise. I will change everything.'

'I'M TALKING ABOUT OBAMA'

For they have unfairly spoken against an African man, and I'm not talking about Jeremiah Wright; I'm talking about Obama. For God said, 'Even though you may think this or that, there is an element of righteousness inside of him to reach out for Jesus. Therefore, I will sway it next week,' says the Spirit of God, 'and I will cause My man, My power--to exalt in the White House what is necessary to declare victory. For this time, I shall rise up and I shall make known who I am in a way that I have never done it in this nation,' says the Lord.

'Do NOT SAY IT IS THIS ONE OR IT IS THAT ONE'

For the Spirit of God says, 'Do not say, 'Is it this one or is it that one?' Hear me out. I am raising up My mantle, My voice. This nation shall be awakened to a spiritual activity that has been dead for 42 years. Listen to Me,' says the Lord. 'I will take over in a way and in a fashion that will bring a force of spiritual unity in this nation for the first time. You can believe it or not. I will take white and I will take African, and I will bring a unity in the Church between the two of them,' says the Spirit of God.

This night in America and in this next week, God has informed us to 'watch' as He unfolds and reveals things so you will know that your nation has not been set aside for division and discord; but a time in the Church where African-American, where white or Caucasian, where Hispanic and every race in this nation under the spiritual guidance of the Spirit within a midst of war and division--will bring them to a place of unity.

'IT SHALL NOT BE BLACK, IT SHALL NOT BE WHITE, IT SHALL NOT BE HISPANIC'

And God said, 'Where one race stood on the steps and covered the fields with million-men marches and Jesus proclamations, there shall be one of the greatest gatherings at the Capitol that you have ever seen,' says the Spirit of God. 'This time it shall not be black, it shall not be white, it shall not be Hispanic, it shall not be from this or that belief, but there shall be a unified sound. Two years from now, where they will hear the sounds of faith and unity and within this next reign, there will be laws that will be changed in favor of the most High God. Not because of Democrat, not because of Republican, but because of spiritual unity and intervention. I will bring you out of what they call 'a recession' into your highest economy that you've ever had in your next four years,' says the Spirit of God. 'Do not think it impossible, for it shall be so.'

'The gatekeepers (I am speaking of) of this nation are the spiritual leaders--the Apostles and the Prophets, the Teachers, the Evangelists, the Pastors'

'For the gatekeepers of this nation are not the Mayors nor the Senators. The gatekeepers of this nation are not the Congressmen or the Congresswomen. Yes, they are gatekeepers but the gatekeepers (I am speaking of) of this nation are the spiritual leaders--the Apostles and the Prophets, the Teachers, the Evangelists, the Pastors that I've raised up. And there shall be a sound of unity that will call from Heaven the manifestation of God as it has never been in this nation. Get ready for your sons and your daughters who will prophesy just like Joel said in the last days. In the last days your sons and your daughters, they shall be prophets and prophetesses and your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall have visions. This is that time,' says the Lord of hosts.

'LET NOT YOUR OPINION CLOUD YOUR SPIRITUAL MIND'

'Let not your opinion cloud your spiritual mind. You say, 'What are you saying?'' The Spirit of God says, 'Call them not denominations, rather abominations, for I am not speaking of these that have built walls. I'm speaking of the true warriors that shall sway the political field; that will sway the justice. It shall be more than a million gathered; more than a million gathered!' And God said, 'They shall say, ' Washington , what is this? This is a sound that we have never heard before.''

'I WILL TAKE THE OIL CRISIS AND BRING IT TO AN END'

And God said, 'I will take the entire Northeast and I will shake it and the double portion that I promised upon the Elisha generation shall be released. Do not say we are in recession, for I will take the oil crisis and bring it to an end, and the rapidity of it shall take place because of the unity of the saints and the unity of the gatekeepers. Get ready, for what you have seen on the television regarding Jeremiah Wright and everybody else is not for evil, but for good. I will turn it around and bring unity in My house,' says the Lord of Hosts.

'YOUR PRESENT PRESIDENT WILL NOT LEAVE HIS OFFICE OR HIS TERM IN SHAME'

'Your present President will not leave his office or his term in shame. There will be a very precise vindication of numerous things that were scorned, that were mocked by men, that thought they knew but understood nothing. And when the baton is handed over,' God said, 'there shall be no fear in the nation.' Now take that and be secure.

I speak not as a politician tonight. I speak to you as a prophetic voice. Not tolerated, but celebrated by the people. Stand firm, you and your house will serve the Lord. And as the prophet Joel said in the last days, your sons and your daughters... sons and daughters are being raised up to prophesy and to have visions. Old men to dream the dreams. That mantle has been cast upon the Church. Therefore, I would say your time of acceleration has reached its peak. You're taking off!

Kim Clement
Prophetic Image Expressions
Email: hope@kimclement.com

Karen Hughley
God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others.

Signs getting more bright

Unknown user — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:35:50 EST

wow, Obama is getting closer

Obama

Long time ago in this place I expected that American people

will accept the great challenge and Obama will be the one who

can unite all Americans to repair the wounds of the society.

Now most events are in favor of Obama, gaining more votes of

people and more votes of the super-delegates, and I think

that Obama should think right now about the battle against

the old republican candidate. America should be ready for the

coming President Obama despite the fact that some Americans

will not be happy with this great possibility. However I

think the sequences are out of imagination, and out of

expectation, but I hope that Obama will be safe and secured,

and I hope he will stick to morals, ethical basics, and

justice in all his future decisions. I stand with him because

believe in change to better world. This blog dated 11/05/2008

Human rights & peace in the middle east - Arabism & Islam discrimination on the "other"

Unknown user — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:21:06 EDT

Human rights & peace in the middle east - Arabism & Islam discrimination on the "other"

[Analysis] Peace will prevail when economic, social and cultural rights are granted to all ...

The Middle East... conflicts...

For example:

* the Israel and [so called] "Occupied Territories" (Palestine) issue

* the conflict between Hamas and the Fatah; the Iraq conflict

* the conflict in Afghanistan

* conflicts within Saudi Arabia

* the security concerns, especially the nuclear threat, that Ahmadinajad's Iran poses

* the Kurdish situation with serious discrimination from Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq with very limited support from any powers

* the Lebanon conflict

* the rise of Islamic militancy in Egypt and Algeria

* the suppression of any opposition in Saudi Arabia and most of Middle East countries

*
the spread of fundamentalist Islam -- Wahabbi style -- and the attempt
to suppress any modern civil secular democratic voices in the Middle
East region

* and not to forget the problems in Sudan where civilians are being massacred in Darfur by the government and the military.

[...]
Islam is at the center of all social order and of the moral and
intellectual values of Middle Eastern Muslims. In fact, it is the
official religion in most Arab and Islamic countries. Considering
Arabism and Islam as synonyms embodies discrimination against various
ethnic and religious groups in the Middle East. [...]

Conclusion

Most
regimes in Middle East are authoritarian, if not dictatorships, ruling
for decades by fear or reward. The elites who rule in Middle East
countries used religious faith with ideology of nationalism for
blinding people and controlling them ... conflicts in the Middle East
all look different, but the real cause root is related to human rights
abuses.
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=&no=383905&rel_no=1

Security Through New Thinking...

Jeffrey from Trinity, TX — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 16:30:51 EDT

I am ecstatic at the thought of no more McCain/Bush White House! Yet I am not exactly overly thrilled about what Senator Obama and his campaign are standing for. Realizing running an election campaign means a bit of compromise and acceptance of positions not whole-heartedly agreeable, I have not heard one statement that new thinking could be a way for Palestinian and Israeli peace!

Sen. Obama and his campaign clearly and blindly support Israeli positions in the Palestinian conflict. Not one word of empathy for the Palestinian people's plight under apparent occupation from IDF. The daily checkpoint closures, the internationally recognized illegal settlements being constructed on Arab lands, the mutually agreed upon right of Gazan fishermen (fishing in their restricted waters ) being attacked and intimidated by Israeli Navy gunboats, et al.

Why is this not part of "CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN"? Repudiating the PATRIOT ACT (and the violations of our Constitutionally-protected rights) and using a reality-based approach to Middle East peace, alone, could make our country safer!

I urge all Obama supporters to view www.ifamericansknew.org to discover truths that we normally will not read or hear about. If you begin to see that conflict in broader terms and how important resolution would be for our own security, then you will feel the need to communicate to Senator Obama, holding him to his mantra: "A Change We Can Believe In"!

Mr President Obama; Save the power of the world

Unknown user — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:54:07 EDT

Now it is not logic to talk to the presidential cadidates because I know well that Mr Obama won

and no doubt he is now the next Mr President of USA. Really this is just a hint but I want to talk

about my invitation to Mr President Obama to support my idea about the energy power. Here in the

Middle East we got oil which is restricted power and we have the sun and the silicon. Now my

question is why could not the USA supply and help the Middle East to make use of the solar energy

on a very wide popular scale to save the oil and reduce their demands which will lead to reduction

of world pollution and reduction of oil price. I know that the leaders of the Middle East may find

this nonsense but you can supply them the technology and you can give the finances especially to

the poor countries like Egypt, Algeria, Tunis, and Morocco. At the end this will benifit The USA in

many parameters. I hope You will think and consider my idea.

Global Communication Association Conference

Hope4Unity — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:15:46 EDT

Oman Conference 2008

Global Communication Association Conference

Globalization and Media in the Middle East
Muscat, Sultanate of OMAN
October 20-21, 2008

Global Communication Association Conference

Globalization and Media in the Middle East
Muscat, Sultanate of OMAN
October 20-21, 2008

Established in 2007 and inaugurated at the Shanghai Global Communication and Development Conference, GCA is intended to:

Foster and promote academic research in global studies;
Promote academic collaboration among major universities around the world;
Facilitate joint projects and research opportunities among scholars, researchers, and graduate students;
Facilitate faculty research and exchange programs;
Facilitate joint programs, grant opportunities, symposiums, and timely initiatives among centers, institutes, and global organizations;
Explore the myriad opportunities and challenges in the areas of teaching, learning, communication development, globalization, mass media, and international cooperation; and
Hold annual conferences throughout the world.

http://blogs.calumet.purdue.edu/gca/

Globalisation for the Common Good works closely with Global Communication Association.

www.globalisationforthecommongood.info

The BEAUTIFUL Zionist, Israeli, Jewish answer to (Iranian) UGLY Islamic Genocide: Iranian boy is treated for brain tumour at Israeli hospital

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:39:20 EDT

The Zionist, Israeli, Jewish answer to Islamic Genocide:

Iranian boy is treated for brain tumour at Israeli hospital Telegraph ^ 11 Oct 2008 Carolynne Wheeler

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/3178088/Iranian-boy-is-treated-for-brain-tumour-at-Israeli-hospital.html

Israel = Humanitarian, Israel the Gem!

George Bush's Lackey Senator McCain

Joe Bell — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:06:06 EDT

I am not a very trusting soul, I guess. This whole bailout idea sounds really suspicious to me. It is hard to believe George Bush under any circumstances since his lies got us into a never ending war with Iraq for none of the reasons he said. I notice the even Senator McCain is still repeating those lies. That is what one would expect a lackey to do, so I suppose it isn't really a blot on him. He is just a spear carrier. George Bush also lied about the telephone surveillance of Americans which we now have direct testimony from people in the business showing that it is not targeted or even controlled. I notice that Senator McCain is still repeating the controlled, targeted and necessary lies. That is what one would expect a lackey to do, since he is just a spear carrier. Now we have George Bush saying the sky is falling the sky is falling and the only thing we can do is take a couple of trillion dollars out of the treasury and give it to the Wall Street guys, and later give it to the bankers. No strings. And again, Senator McCain goes along. He even offers other ideas like cutting capital gains tax rates to seven percent. Weird when you think that most people will not have any capital gains this year, but much in line with George Bush's plans to give money to people who already have lots of it. A lackey, a spear carrier.

But I just feel that there is some agenda about this bailout that we don't know about yet. I can't imagine any problem with less than 10% of the sub-prime mortgages being big enough that we couldn't deal with it in the normal course of business with our existing agencies and practices. And if mortgages were it, why are all the bailout measures aimed at people who have nothing to do with mortgages? Just like there wasn't anything about Iraq that would have merited a single person being killed over it. Just like the crazy idea that you can spy on Americans because of things you don't know they are doing. Or that we were somehow relieved of observing the Geneva Conventions because we are exceptionally nice people.

Could this gambit be intended to take away the ability of the United States to borrow money for some time in the future? That will make the dollar a worthless currency everywhere but at the 7 Eleven on the corner. That could provide cover for all the Saudi princes to switch to the Euro for trading oil and stick the Russians with lots of worthless dollars and a struggling economy. We can already see that the future price for oil is dropping like a stone now. Nothing has changed about the oil, the supply or the demand. So maybe this sudden crisis is another misguided plan, half cocked by George Bush and his lackey Senator McCain, to deceive, defraud and leave destitute the American public, paralyze the government for some time to come (like during the Obama administration), and give aid and comfort to Saudi Arabia.

Wanted - Conservative/Republican endorsements of Obama

Barbara — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:37:05 EDT

MakeFloridaCount.com archives articles, videos and other organizing resources to use with undecided voters.

I am developing section on Conservative and Republican endorsements of Obama. Please send me your suggestions (by e-mail or by commenting on the blog).

See extended blog for more detail of what is available on the site.

New organizing resources are added daily.

In unity.

Barbara Myers

barbmyrs@gmail.com

Resources to convince the undecided

Barbara — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:22:15 EDT

Need an article or video to convince an undecided voter to vote for Obama/Biden?

MakeFloridaCount.com archives articles, videos and other organizing resources so that people making calls and going door to door can have easy access to the latest material.

Organizers should look carefully at the left hand column of the site for useful resources.   Here's a breakdown of some of what's there.

Character Counts - What to expect from Barack Obama
    * The New Yorker endorsement
    * Press Conference on State of the Economy
    * Chicago Jews on their experience with Obama
    * Obama's speech on race and reaction to Rev. Wright Uproar
    * SFGate - Obama profile
    * NYTimes Obama archive

Character Counts - What to expect from John McCain
    * John McCain's Rage
    * NYTimes - Politics of Attack
    * Keating Economics
    * The Straight Talk Express (exposed)
    * NYTimes - McCain lifelong gambler
    * George Will - Can a dismaying temperment be fixed?
    * Nicholas Kristof - Impulsive, Impetuous, Impatient

New organizing resources are added daily - MakeFloridaCount.com.

In unity.

Barbara Myers

please see extended post for more resources.

Defense of israel - Commitment of troops -- Should resemble NATO Alliance

Jimmy from Denver, CO — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:10:06 EDT

I am an Obama supporter, and have been from the beginning. But at times, mostly due to rumor and fear, it has been a challenge to persuade other Jews to support Obama. I was mildly disappointed in Barack's response about Israel during the "town hall" debate last night. His position paper on Israel is not much stronger.

Question: Senator, as a retired Navy chief, my thoughts are often with those who serve our country. I know both candidates, both of you, expressed support for Israel. If, despite your best diplomatic efforts, Iran attacks Israel, would you be willing to commit U.S. troops in support and defense of Israel? Or would you wait on approval from the U.N. Security Council?

Barack's Response: We cannot allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon. It would be a game-changer in the region. Not only would it threaten Israel, our strongest ally in the region and one of our strongest allies in the world, but it would also create a possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists. And so it's unacceptable. And I will do everything that's required to prevent it. And we will never take military options off the table. And it is important that we don't provide veto power to the United Nations or anyone else in acting in our interests.

In his position paper, Barack supports israel's right of self-defense. Of cours!. But if Israel were actually attacked, I believe the US committment to israel should be as strong as to the members of NATO. (And Israel shoudl have reciprocal obligations toward the US.) At the core of NATO's mutual defense commitment is Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, which states that an attack on one or more members of the alliance will be considered an attack on all. For strategic reasons, even more than the substantial cultural and political reasons, the US-Israel military commitments should be fully as strong as any and all others, inclduing NATO.

Jimmy Winokur

The Arab immigrants that started to call themselves (in the 1960's as) "palestinians"

Mamita from Stockton, CA — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:48:55 EDT

The Arab immigrants that started to call themselves (in the 1960's as) "palestinians"

The Arabs in the Holy Land - Natives or Aliens? Unknown to most of the world population, the origin of the "Palestinian" Arabs' claim to the Holy Land spans ...
http://www.ldolphin.org/palestinians.html The True Identity of the So-called Palestinians.
The current myth is that these Arabs were long established in “Palestine”, until the Jews came and “displaced” them. The fact is, that recent Arab immigration into the Land of Israel displaced the Jews. That the massive increase in Arab population was very recent is attested by the ruling of the United Nations: That any Arab who had lived in the Holy Land for two years and then left in 1948 qualifies as a “Palestinian refugee”.
http://www.imninalu.net/myths-pals.htm

From Time Immemorial - Evidence of Unrecorded Arab Immigration 9 Fred M. Gottheil, “Arab Immigration into Pre-State Israel: 1922-1931″
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=2139 But as she continued, the anomaly of the Palestinians "began to nag and ... Thanks to British unconcern, Arab immigrants were generally left alone and ...
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/1110

Palestinian people do not exist! They love to say her statement is patently false – an intentional lie, ... The Palestinian people does not exist.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28222

The True Identity of the So-called Palestinians

In this essay I would like to present the true origin and identity of the Arab people commonly known as "Palestinians", and the widespread myths surrounding them. This research is intended to be completely neutral and objective, based on historic and archaeological evidences as well as other documents, including Arab sources, and quoting statements by authoritative Islamic personalities.
There are some modern myths -or more exactly, lies- that we can hear everyday through the mass-media as if they were true, of course, hiding the actual truth. For example, whenever the Temple Mount or Jerusalem are mentioned, it is usually remarked that is "the third holy place for muslims", but why it is never said that is the FIRST Holy Place for Jews? It sounds like an utterly biased information!

In order to make this essay better comprehensible, it will be presented in two units:
·1) Myths and facts concerning the origin and identity of the so-called Palestinians;
·2) Myths and facts regarding Jerusalem and the Land of Israel.

I - Origin and identity of the so-called Palestinians
Palestinians are the newest of all the peoples on the face of the Earth, and began to exist in a single day by a kind of supernatural phenomenon that is unique in the whole history of mankind, as it is witnessed by Walid Shoebat, a former PLO terrorist that acknowledged the lie he was fighting for and the truth he was fighting against: ,br> “Why is it that on June 4th 1967 I was a Jordanian and overnight I became a Palestinian?” “We did not particularly mind Jordanian rule. The teaching of the destruction of Israel was a definite part of the curriculum, but we considered ourselves Jordanian until the Jews returned to Jerusalem. Then all of the sudden we were Palestinians - they removed the star from the Jordanian flag and all at once we had a Palestinian flag”. “When I finally realized the lies and myths I was taught, it is my duty as a righteous person to speak out”.
This declaration by a true "Palestinian" should have some significance for a sincerely neutral observer. Indeed, there is no such a thing like a Palestinian people, or a Palestinian culture, or a Palestinian language, or a Palestinian history. There has never been any Palestinian state, neither any Palestinian archaeological find nor coinage. The present-day "Palestinians" are an Arab people, with Arab culture, Arabic language and Arab history. They have their own Arab states from where they came into the Land of Israel about one century ago to contrast the Jewish immigration. That is the historical truth. They were Jordanians (another recent British invention, as there has never been any people known as "Jordanians"), and after the Six-Day War in which Israel utterly defeated the coalition of nine Arab states and took legitimate possession of Judea and Samaria, the Arab dwellers in those regions underwent a kind of anthropological miracle and discovered that they were Palestinians - something they did not know the day before. Of course, these people having a new identity had to build themselves a history, namely, had to steal some others' history, and the only way that the victims of the theft would not complain is if those victims do no longer exist. Therefore, the Palestinian leaders claimed two contradictory lineages from ancient peoples that inhabited in the Land of Israel: the Canaanites and the Philistines. Let us consider both of them before going on with the Palestinian issue.
http://www.imninalu.net/myths-pals.htm

The Myth Of The Palestinian People - The answer is that the myth of the Palestinian People serves as the justification for Arab occupation of the Land of Israel. While the Arabs already possess 21 sovereign countries of their own (more than any other single people on earth) and control a land mass 800 times the size of the Land of Israel, this is apparently not enough for them. They therefore feel the need to rob the Jews of their one and only country, one of the smallest on the planet. Unfortunately, many people ignorant of the history of the region, including much of the world media, are only too willing to help.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=747

All Things Beautiful: The Myth Of Palestine, Whenever there were Arab riots, Jewish immigration was restricted. .... Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The Myth Of Palestine:
http://www.allthingsbeautiful.com/all_things_beautiful/2006/01/the_myth_of_pal.html

The Smoking Gun: Arab Immigration into Palestine, 1922-1931 - Middle East Quarterly.
http://www.meforum.org/article/522

In the early 19th century, Palestine was a backward, neglected province of the Ottoman Empire. Travelers to Palestine from the Western world left records of what they saw there. The theme throughout their reports is dismal: The land was empty, neglected, abandoned, desolate, fallen into ruins. In Jerusalem, all reports and journals of travelers, pilgrims and government representatives during these years, repeatedly record the poverty, filth and neglect and the desolate nature of the countryside. Early photographs show lepers in rags and dilapidated buildings. Jerusalem was surrounded by marauding bands of Bedouin Arabs and had to close her gates at nightfall and reopen them at first light, a practice that was similar in Biblical times. Some quotes from the writings of these visitors before modern times: Nothing there [Jerusalem] to be seen but a little of the old walls which is yet remaining and all the rest is grass, moss and weeds. [English pilgrim in 1590] The country is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants and therefore its greatest need is of a body of population. [British consul in 1857] There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent [valley of Jezreel] -- not for 30 miles in either direction... One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings. ... For the sort of solitude to make one dreary, come to Galilee ... Nazareth is forlorn ... Jericho lies a moldering ruin ... Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and humiliation... untenanted by any living creature... A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds ... a silent, mournful expanse ... a desolation ... We never saw a human being on the whole route ... Hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil had almost deserted the country ... Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery Palestine must be the prince. The hills barren and dull, the valleys unsightly deserts [inhabited by] swarms of beggars with ghastly sores and malformations. Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes ... desolate and unlovely ... [Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, 1867]
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_early_palestine_zionists_impact.php WHY DID THE ARABS FLEE IN 1948? "The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist ... they were not indigenous. That Palestine was not their ancient homeland. ...
http://www.shalomjerusalem.com/jerusalem/jerusalem100.html israelinsider: The myth of the Palestinian People, To portray themselves as indigenous, Arab settlers adopted the name of an ... State of Israel an independent Arab Palestinian state existed in its place. ...
http://www.israelinsider.com/views/articles/views_0240.htm Film to 'dispel Arab propaganda' ... disguising the Arab immigrants as "indigenous native Palestinian ...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27661 Mahmoud Abbas Admits Palestinian Arabs Are Not Indigenous. From a speech given to the PLO Central ... The Difference Between Palestinian Arab Moderates . ...
http://primerct.blogspot.com/2007/06/mahmoud-abbas-admits-palestinian-arabs.html On a visit to the Ottoman-controlled Holy Land in 1860, Mark Twain described it as "the prince of desolation." "The hills are barren… the valleys unsightly deserts… peopled by swarms of beggars struck with ghastly sores and malformations… Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes… only the music of angels could charm its shrubs and flowers again into life." Other writers and artists visiting the Holy Land (chiefly from Britain and Germany) — as well as geographers, archeologists, and cartographers — were equally stunned by its utter desolation. It was only toward the end of the 18th century, when a growing stream of Jewish immigrants rehabilitated the land — draining swamps, reclaiming deserts, and controlling the diseases (chiefly malaria) — that a decimated Arab population began increasing. The resuscitation of the land by the Jews and the economic opportunity they created brought an influx of Arab immigrants from dirt-poor neighboring Arab states to swell the number of Arabs in Palestine, so that by the turn of the century there were about 250,000 Arab Muslims and 150,00 Jews living there. 100,000 Christians and others It was in fact British colonial machinations that turned initial Arab acceptance of a Jewish homeland in British-protected Palestine into unmitigated and disastrous hostility. British behavior in the Middle East in general, and in Palestine in particular, was common colonial practice: divide and rule. In India, it enabled the British to subdue the subcontinent with few troops by pitting hostile segments of the indigenous population against each other. They employed this strategy in Palestine too. From the very first days of the mandate, a group of very influential British officials in the Colonial and the War Offices, who wanted to maintain control over the land and to prevent the establishment of an independent Jewish national home, started undermining their government's efforts to fulfill its obligation toward the Jews. These British officials, many of them avowed anti-Semites, fanned Arab resentment over broken British promises to make the Arabian chieftain, Faisal, king of Damascus and Syria, and redirected it against Jewish aspirations in Palestine. Indeed, their naming the mandate over the Holy Land "Palestine," rather than the land of Israel, was a deliberate effort to obliterate the Jewish connection to the land by calling it by its Roman name. They also, in 1923, unilaterally removed from the original mandatory area all the land east of the Jordan River-75 percent of the territory promised to the Jews — and gave it to the Emir Abdullah of Arabia, Faisal's brother, in compensation to the Hashemite family for other broken promises. They did so despite objections from the League of Nations. The small area that had been designated as a home for the Jews was thus reduced to a mere sliver. A distinct Palestinian Arab nationalism evolved only after the dream of an Arab Syrian kingdom — the brainchild of T. E. Lawrence — was shattered when the French evicted his protégé, the Emir Faisal, from Damascus in 1920. Only then did the South Syrian Arabs living under Britain's Palestine mandate separate themselves from Syria and start defining themselves as Palestinians. The process was accelerated by their growing negative reaction to the League of Nations' designation of Palestine as a Jewish national home. The British helped make hostility to Zionism the defining issue of local Arab politics, and assisted in its exploitation as a lethal weapon in bloody Arab inter-clan struggles for dominance. Muslim clerics and Arab effendis exploited hostility against the Jews, always convenient scapegoats, to deflect the rage of their destitute, exploited people. The British appointed an extremely radical upstart politician, Hajj Amin al-Hussieni, with a record of violence and incitement, as chief mufti of Jerusalem. They gave him the authority of a spiritual leader to the Arabs, and control of the considerable funds and properties managed by Muslim religious trusts. The mufti promptly proceeded to exploit these resources for his nefarious campaign against the Jews and against his Arab opponents — much as Arafat does today.
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-doron081402.asp

One moderate Arab vs Arabism's racism - scolded for grouping Arabs with Israel

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:50:41 EDT

One moderate Arab vs Arabism's racism

'Arabs, Israel should sit together,' says Bahrain minister Web posted at: 10/2/2008 1:35:54 Source ::: AFP dubai • The foreign minister of staunch US ally Bahrain has called for the creation of a regional grouping of Arab states with historic foe Israel, as well as Iran and Turkey, a newspaper reported yesterday. "Israel, Iran, Turkey and Arab states should sit together in one organisation," Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad Al Khalifa was quoted in the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat as saying. "Aren't we all members of a global organisation called the United Nations? Why not (come together) on a regional basis? This is the only way to solve our problems. There's no other way to solve them, now or in 200 years." Al Hayat, which interviewed the Bahraini chief diplomat in New York, said he had proposed the establishment of a regional bloc in a speech to the UN General Assembly. Bahrain's crown prince, Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, met Israeli officials during World Economic Forum summits in 2000 and 2003, while Sheikh Khaled met Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni at the UN last year. But political groupings in Bahrain, which is ruled by a Sunni dynasty and has a Shia majority, resist any attempt at normalisation of ties with Israel. "Why don't we sit together even if we disagree, even if we don't recognise each other? Let's be in a single organisation in order to overcome the difficult stage through which the Middle East is passing -- a stage that remains hostage to the past," Sheikh Khaled told Al Hayat, referring to the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict. http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&month=October2008&file=World_News2008100213554.xml

The Arabism's Racism reaction

Bahrain activists slam call for grouping of Arabs, Israel by AFP
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Friday, 03 October 2008 PLAN SLAMMED: Lawmakers and opposition activists in Bahrain have slammed foreign minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa (pictured) for calling for a regional bloc. (AFP) Lawmakers and opposition activists in Bahrain on Thursday slammed the foreign minister of the Gulf state, a staunch US ally, after he called for a regional grouping of Arabs and historic foe Israel.

Obama and the Jewish Vote

liberal — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:39:26 EDT

"Senator Obama has an outstanding voting record on Israel issues. Senator Obama co-sponsored the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act. He has joined several letters urging actions on behalf of the interests of the State of Israel, including a letter calling on the European Union to add Hezbollah to its list of terrorist groups, a letter urging President Bush to press Palestinian leadership to bar terrorist groups from Palestinian elections and a letter expressing solidarity with Israel in its fight against terrorism."

(Full post after the jump)

Support peace in the Middle East, not reactionary governments

Bill — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:32:01 EDT

Senator:

I was terribly disappointed in your obeisance to the reactionaries of AIPAC. As a Jew, I can tell you unequivocally, that their opinions and mine are at odds.

Additionally, you should know that my views are in concert with the large majority of American Jews.

A Blast from the Past

Leslye J Allen of Atlanta, GA — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:28:21 EDT

This weekend I sat in my car for over half an hour in a line at a local gas station. Why? Well, Hurricanes Gustav and Ike have damaged the coast and hampered oil production in both Texas and Louisiana. Was I thrilled about this turn of events? In a way I was quite thrilled in spite of the fact that I could end up being inconvenienced to the point of only leaving the house for an emergency. Let me explain.

Back in 1973 Republican President Richard Nixon asked Congress to grant him emergency powers to lower fuel consumption and circumvent environmental regulations in order to meet the demand for fuel as the nation faced a natural gas, fuel oil, and gasoline shortage. The Arab-Israeli War, that had begun in October of 1973, had forced oil-producing Arab nations to make the decision to cut oil production and shipments to the United States. In the mid-1970s, after Nixon's fall from grace, Democratic President Jimmy Carter donned heavy sweaters in the Whitehouse and asked Americans to lower their thermostats to conserve a certain finite source called oil. The nation suffered a brief oil shortage back during his administration. President Carter tried to warn a largely disinterested public about the danger of America's dependence on foreign oil. There were public service announcements about how oil was (and remains) a finite resource and that we needed to conserve it and find other means to fuel our cars and warm our homes. Carter was right back then, but I doubt if anyone was really paying attention.

I have been involved in environmental issues for over ten years now as a member of the National Resources Defense Council. I proudly recycle plastic, glass, and all kinds of paper. I buy as many biodegradable products as I can find and take my canvass bags to the grocery store rather than use store-brand petroleum-based plastic bags. I drive a fuel efficient car and pray that when it is time to buy another car that the hydrogen car can be purchased nationwide rather than in a few enclaves of California. I have had numerous debates with an assortment of nitwits who refuse to believe that Global Warming is real. I have often been called a "tree-hugger." I ran into some of those folks at the gas pumps this weekend. I did not gloat. I did not have to.

I watched Barack Obama debate an out-of-touch John McCain on Friday September 26. I watched Barack tie our dependence on foreign oil to our missteps in Iraq. The Bush administration's unwillingness to promote investment in alternative energy solutions is also a problem for our economy. Alternative energy solutions is the way out of oil dependence, further environmental degradation, and a means of jump-starting a sluggish economy. It has taken a while for some folks to catch on, but Jimmy Carter was right. Barack need only continue connecting the dots.

Bin Laden Supports McCain

Jim — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:54:35 EDT

Look for McBush and the current Republican Administration to try to scare everyone over the attacks in Yemen and Pakistan. But it seems like if Al Queda is behind this stuff that they are supporting McCain!

Bin Laden has vowed to bring down the United States and the West. His attack on the Towers was aimed at the financial institutions they represented. If you think about it Bin Landen must be looking at this financial crisis we are experiencing as a win for him. He wants us to stay in Iraq and the Middle East spending Trillions of dollars and bogged down in endless wars, our economy in tatters.

So Bin Landen doesn't want an Democratic Administration he wants as many years of Bush or McBush and their policies as possible. It's not like he feels threatened living the life in Pakistan or somewhere else, Bush hasn't even been trying to find him since Bush wants him around to scare us with. McCain is no different.

It's pretty clear that Bush, McCain, Cheyney and the Republicans have been loosing the war against Bin Laden and Al Queda. If McBush can't win the election with culture wars, he'll go for foreign wars and terrorist threats to scare us that we need a militarist as President.

But even that falls short for a reason to vote for Palin-McBush because McCain has no real Military command experience and finished near the bottom of his Annapolis class. His military career was a disaster.

Any rise in terrorist attacks shows that the terrorists are supporting Bush and McBush.

Dennis Ross Supports Obama

Tal from NPR/Trinity — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 14:42:03 EDT

Dennis Ross stumps for Obama

Published: 09/12/2008

Dennis Ross launched a public appeal to American Jews to vote for Barack Obama. A former diplomat and Middle East specialist who held top policy-planning positions in the Clinton and first Bush administrations, Ross told an overflow crowd at a suburban Philadelphia synagogue on Thursday night that he was embracing partisan politics because "the United States can't afford and Israel can't afford" a continuation of the Bush policies over the past eight years.

Ross said he had remained neutral during the primary season because of his relationship with the Clintons. Now that he has signed on as a Middle East adviser to Obama and a surrogate to help elect him, the Obama campaign is deploying Ross to appear before Jewish audiences in key swing states, including Ohio, Nevada and Florida, according to Daniel Shapiro, director of Jewish outreach for Obama.

Ross told JTA that while he didn't expect to be asked to be secretary of state in an Obama administration, "If I could play a role in an Obama administration and I could make a difference, I'd be happy to do so."

Ross said he signed onto the Obama campaign after accompanying the Democratic nominee for president on his trip to Israel and Europe this summer and coming away impressed with Obama's leadership style, grasp of the issues and ability to dialogue with all the world leaders with whom he met. The trip, he said, focused heavily on the threat of a nuclear Iran. So did Ross' remarks Thursday.

Calling Iran's nuclear ambitions the "most important issue we are facing in terms of national security," Ross said that Iran is "already a nuclear power" and has increased its ability to produce nuclear arms dramatically over the past several years under the failed policies of the Bush administration.

He defended Obama's willingness to engage Iran, suggesting it was foolish to eliminate one of the tools that could help change "unacceptable behavior."

He sidestepped a question on whether Obama would support an Israeli strike against Iran, saying the United States needs to work toward a "third way" that avoids just two alternatives: a nuclear-armed Iran or military action against Iran. Ross reiterated Obama's position that "when it comes to Israel's security, they are the ultimate arbiter."

Arabism's Racism and Wikipedia bias

Loma from Warner Robins, GA — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:06:12 EDT

The wiki Pan - Arabism page

A Jordanian Arab 'Contrieng' (that some how has no idea about history, that 1800's & 1900's attack on Jews by Arabism' nationalism' is long before any lame excuses connecting it to the M.E. conflict, or other gross misinformation trying to alter PEW's polling that shows anti Jewish racism among Jordanian Arabs, where 100% viewed ANY Jews unfavorably trying to charactorize it as 'anti-zionist-occupation') & a Kurd 'KhoiKhoi' (who should know better after Saddam's Arabist anti-Kurd genocide campaign or in light of Syrian anti-Kurdish policy) have been "objecting" the "relativity" of Arab racism in wikipedia's 'Pan-Arabism'.

The Arab Contrieng's "objection" is mainly against Atabism's anti-Jewish section, which is of course only reaffirming again Arab racism by staunch Pro-Arabism.

(There's also a bias tendency on some at the wikipedia "administrators" to block certain users under a cover of baseless "charge" of sockpuppet-ing, no, not when it comes to anti Jewish racist editors...).

Well, here we reiterate it again, I am the editor and I distribute it to others [free to use it] who might use wikipedia [figthing unfairness & bias].

Well, here are a few points about the undisputable connection.

Another important point, the POV push by some on wikipedia that Arabism is 'only' secular is totally wrong, historically or present, though not always is it 'religious' either, but there have been Islamism & Arabism connection since the beginning, and still going on today.

_______________

Pan-Arabism's anti-Jewish ideology

The champion of pan-Arabism Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser used the infamous anti-Semitic "protocols" libel in his war against Israel. [29], Both pan-Arabism and pan-Islamic ideologies looked to Hitler's Germany as a model Haj Amin al-Husseini expressed his admiration for the way 'the Germans have definitively solved the Jewish problem,' [30] & Gamal Abdel Nasser's affinity for the Mufti was great [31], Joachim Wurst describes the emergence and psychological mechanisms of modern anti-Semitism and particularly of genocidal Islamist anti-Semitism. He traces the development of this trend from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Mufti of Jerusalem in the 1930s and 1940s through the pan-Arabism of the 1950s and 1960s up to the present-day Islamism. [32].

1800's & 1920's.

The origin of anti-Jewish feelings among Arabs do not originate from what they preceive as 'the occupation of Palestine' and the creation of Israel. Even before the creation of the Israeli state in 1948 on what was before Palestine, a largely uninhabited terrain, many Jews were recorded attacked in various settlements by Arabs since the late 1800's [33].

_________

The WIKI Script can be copied from here: http://geocities.com/masteringwiki/Wiki-Arabism.html

Pan-Arabism and Arabization - a movement for unification among the peoples and countries of the Arab World, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea. It is closely connected to Arab nationalism which asserts that the Arabs constitute a single nation. At times Pan-Arabism has tended to be secular and often socialist, but often it embeds within it Islamic tradition and culture or Islamism (like the genocide in Darfur). and has strongly opposed colonialism and Western political involvement in the Arab world. Also historic Arabizing of the middle east [1] and in Africa that process is still going on today [2]. Pan-Arabism is a form of nationalism and cultural nationalism .

There's a strong argument that Arabism was never detached from Islamism, To this day, Islam has retained its imperial ambitions. The dream of regional and world domination has remained very much alive, despite the destruction long ago of the last great Muslim empire, which has left the Islamic caliphate vacant. The 20th century doctrine of pan-Arabism (exemplified by Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser), though secular in appearance, has been effectively Islamic in its ethos, worldview, and imperialist vision. Karsh quotes Nuri Said, longtime prime minister of Iraq and a prominent early champion of pan-Arabism: "Although Arabs are naturally attached to their native land, their nationalism is not confined by boundaries. It is an aspiration to restore the great tolerant civilization of the early caliphate." [3].

Contents

1 Racism

[edit]Racism[edit]In General

'Arabism Equals Racism', in an elaborated article, Gerald A. Honigman writes on the "acceptance of anyone else�s political rights in a multi-ethnic region that most Arabs see exclusively as "purely Arab patrimony." That's the Arab-Israel conflict in a nutshell; but it is also the core of the Arab-Berber, Arab-Kurd, Arab-Black African, Arab-Copt, Arab-Assyrian, Arab-non-Arab Lebanese conflicts, as well, among others. The Arabs' Anfal Campaign against the Kurds and their actions in Darfur and the rest of the southern Sudan are just a few of many examples of Arab genocidal actions against all who might disagree." [4].

Walid Phares writes about Arabism's denial of identity of millions of indigenous non-Arab nations as an ethnic cleansing on a politico-cultural level [5].

Christians of Iraq site published an extensive historic account on "The Foolishness of imposing Oppressive Arab Nationalism on Non Arabs, Non-Arab Muslim minorities such as the Amazigh, or Berbers, Kurds, and Turkmen found themselves officially out of favor. They faced the prospect of becoming "Arabized" or of being denied political and even civil rights. Groups that identified themselves as neither Arab nor Muslim had it even worse: Southern Sudanese, Copts, Jews, and Assyrians were plunged into a protracted nightmare that saw their communities ground into anonymity, forcing many to emigrate permanently. Even Maronites, whose retention of political power in Lebanon immunized them from utter marginalization, watched with alarm as Arab nationalist propaganda increasingly portrayed them as a foreign and sinister element in the heart of the Arab nation." [6]

Adel Makhoul wrote in May 1, 2005 about Pan-Arabists: Hiding Arab Racism, that they're agents of racism: Arab Racism, that always supported Arab unity and "Islam" at the expense of non-Arab and non-Moslem peoples and tries to deflect the world's attention from Arab and Moslem attrocities committed against Christians, Kurds, Jews, Israelis, Coptic Christians, non-Arab Sudanese, etc. he also points to the fact that Sadam Hussein's poisoning of the Kurds has never been condemned by one Arab intellectual or leader. This is because a racist prevalent attitude in the Arab mind is that the entire Middle East should be Arab. This also explains the attitude towards Israel, a country that is predominantly non-Moslem and speaks a Middle Eastern language other than Arabic.[7] Michael Totten decries the tired Arab nationalist myth that Arabism protects Christians. [8]

The linkage to terror - Protecting terrorism, Pan-Arabism: the inhuman progenitor of Islamic Terrorism [9].

[edit]Anti-Persian

A historic account of Pan-Arabism's Legacy of Confrontation with Iran & Arab racism against Iranians. [10], Iran Heritage says that It was in Saddam Hussein's Iraq where Arab racism attained its most vulgar ... The "Arabization" of Persian contributions on the world stage was in full. [11]

[edit]Anti-Kurd

The Kurds in Syria between 2 to 2.5 million [12] they're second class citizens, for many not citizens at all, the attempts of Erasing Ethnic Identity. Syrian Kurds were banned from giving their children names reflecting their ethnic identity. Pary Karadaghi, Director of Kurdish Human Rights Watch in Washington, says one of the most basic ways of showing Kurdish identity was taken away. "The campaign of 'Arabization' actually replaced the Kurdish names, People could not have Kurdish names on cities, buildings [and] businesses. Children's names could not be Kurdish." Syria's Kurds struggle for years to survive despite government oppression on many fronts. [13] And a cry against syria's oppression has gone out. [14]

Iraq's Saddam Hussein's Anfal campaign was designed to depopulate ethnic cleansing the Kurdish regions in northern Iraq. [15], Kurdish writers decry the massacre of Halabja and The Racism of so-called Arab Intellectuals towards Kurds and Kurdistan [16] [17].

[edit]Anti-Berber

The UN documented the racism against Indigenous peoples Multi-ethnic States, The Imazighen Berbers are the indigenous peoples of northern Africa and the Sahel [18]. Despite Arabization's oppression in north-Africa, they are a proud people[19], Morocco's Berbers Battle to Keep Their Culture [20], in 2004 they spoke out and attacked Moroccan state racism [21]. Berber Leader Belkacem Lounes: �There Is No Worse Colonialism Than That of the Pan-Arabist Clan that Wants to Dominate Our People� [22].

Kabylia info writes about oppression and tyranny of its people by Arabic-Islamic colonialism [23], the IHT's description: This is Kabylia, one of Algeria's most restive regions - home to a stubborn and proud ethnic minority of Berbers who since the end of the colonial era four decades ago have fought to preserve their cultural identity and independence. [24]

[edit]On Caucasians

SHEIK Taj Din al-Hilali: "The Western people are the biggest liars and oppressors and especially the English race," the Mufti of Australia said in Arabic during the extensive interview in Egypt, his birthplace. [25]

On the racist gang rape spree by Arab Lebanese in Australia targeting specifically white girls, From the Sydney Morning Herald 2002 Racist rapes: Finally the truth comes out, So now we know the facts, straight from the Supreme Court, that a group of Lebanese Muslim gang rapists from south-western Sydney hunted their victims on the basis of their ethnicity and subjected them to hours of degrading, dehumanising torture. The young women, and girls as young as 14, were "sluts" and "Aussie pigs", the rapists said. So now that some of the perpetrators are in jail, will those people who cried racism and media "sensationalism" hang their heads in shame? Hardly. [26]

Saudi Arabia's King Fahd Bin Abdul-Aziz, Jeddeh 1993: "I summon my blue-eyed slaves anytime it pleases me. I command the Americans to send me their bravest soldiers to die for me. Anytime I clap my hands a stupid genie called the American ambassador appears to do my bidding. When the Americans die in my service their bodies are frozen in metal boxes by the US Embassy and American airplanes carry them away, as if they never existed. Truly, America is my favorite slave." [27]

In 2006 Arab "Youths� Kick Man to Death on Crowded Bus in Antwerp Belgium [28].

[edit]Anti-Jewish[edit]In General

Pan-Arabism's anti-Jewish ideology

1800's & 1920's.

'Historical and Investigative Research' examins if Arab anti-Jewish racism in the first half of the 20th c. (that was marked already then with slaughtering of Jews with the racist shouting of Itbach al Yahud - kill the Jews) was fundamentally indifferent from the European variety [34]. On March 1, 1944. the famous Mufti: Amin Al-Husseini makes speech from Berlin addressing Muslim SS Nazi troops: �Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, History and Religion. This saves your honor. God is with you.� [35].

On Syria's Baathism's racism [36] Major ideas of Baathism center around racism and anti-Semitism. The Baath party stems from the Pan-Arab movement [37], examples: Syrian Daily Al Baath, October 21, 1998 had an antisemitic cartoon, and on October 21, 1998 on Syrian TV: In these days, all of us, Arabs and Muslims, must stand together against the Jews [38].

Egypt has played gross anti-Jewish TV extravaganza "Horse without Horseman" which also portrays the Arab/Israeli conflict in an antisemitic anti-Jewish format [39]. so does anti-Jewish themes in Hezbollah Media. [40] Memri So does the ADL [41], Saudi Arabia bans Jewish visitors [42]. Pew's finding in 2005 found that in Muslim nations such as Jordan most viewed Jews. [43].

But it knows no borders, of the ADL's records that documents antisemitic attacks wordlwide [44], the larger portion of those listed since 2002 (to 2008) were attributed to Arabs, especially those in Europe, in a sport game in Chile, Non-Jewish Goldberg (mistaken for Jew) made headlines after fans of Palestino, a Chilean team set up by Palestinian Arabs hurled racial slurs, 'They called me J. garbage' [45].

In 2007 the London editor of pan-Arab daily was praying for Iranian nuclear genocide attack on Israel [46] "if the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight." circulating its propaganda to about 50,000 readers [47].

Europe: A few examples in France: Already in October 2000 among a very long and troubling list of attacks, Jews threatened and shoved by Arabs outside O.Y. Synagogue in Paris (first of two incidents) & 'Death to Jews' painted on two Synagogues in Marseilles [48], between 2000-2001 200 Arabs attacked Jews on the Champs Elysees [49], in March 2003 French Arab Muslims attack Jews in Paris in an "anti-war" march [50], in 2003 Jewish congregations in Sweden have noted a sharp increase in "harassment threats and attacks by Arabs and Muslims against Jews [51], in 2004 Six Arab youths attacked a twenty three year old young mother with her thirteen month old baby [52] after "deciding" she was Jewish, cut her hair with knives, slashed her clothes and scrawled swastikas on her belly in black felt-tip pen [53],in March 2006 Jews attacked in Paris suburbs by Arabs [54] in June 2008 Jewish Boy Attacked by Arab Muslim Mob in Paris [55], A 17-year-old French Jew Rudy Haddad attacked by North-Africans (Arabs) Jewish teen brutally beaten in apparent anti-Semitic attack in Paris, "[Sarkozy] assures the victim and his family of his support and renews his total determination to fight all forms of racism and anti-Semitism," said a statement from Sarkozy's office. A 23-year-old French Jew, Ilan Halimi, was found naked, tortured and covered in burns near Paris on February 13, 2006, after being held captive for three weeks. He died on the way to the hospital. The crime shocked France and raised fears of surging anti-Semitism among French Muslims. In February of this year, another Jewish teenager was tortured in the same town in which Halimi was killed, in yet another anti-Semitic attack. [56].

At the UN, The Arab Lawyers Union of Egypt in Durban in 2001, distributed a booklet of violently Ani Jewish cartoons and has, since then, continued its incitement to Jew-hatred [57].

Jeremy Jones wrote in a report in 2004 on Australia that some of the most overt anti-Jewish rhetoric in recent years has come from the Muslim and Arab groups & communities, and within the Arab and Muslim communities there is a group of activists who seek at every opportunity to denigrate Jews, not only in association with attacks on Israel[1].

On campus: The university of Columbia's investigation into charges of anti-Jewish intimidation by Arab professors [58].

Harassment on Jewish students in Canadian universities by Arabs like in Carleton [59], Concordia University [60] which has been described by some as "centre of militant Arabism in Canada" [61]. [62] there were charges (in 2002) of militant Arabism in Canada's Concordia University.

More on campus, On May 7 2002, an example has been seen at the SFSU while a large, angry crowd of Arab Palestinians and their supporters swarmed a Jewish peace rally (where students wore t-shirts that said "peace" in English, Hebrew and Arabic) members, used physical violence, and shouted "Get out or we will kill you" and "Hitler did not finish the job" [63] [64] [65].

There are complaints against the Muslim Students Association MSA of racism against Jews coming from its Arabs, Muslims, in 2008 Author David Horowitz, a popular conservative writer, was derided in a Nazi-like anti-Semitic cartoon, put out by the Muslim Student Association. The cartoon, which was copied and spread around campus, portrays Horowitz, a Jewish man, as a hooked-nose Nazi hiding in a trash can [66].

[edit]Roots and cause of Middle east conflict

Pundits explain that the conflict in the middle east Arabs Vs Israel (that started with racist massacers on Jews accompanied with the slogan "Itbach al Yahud - Kill the Jews" [67] already in the 1920's [68], through Hitler's buddy [69] the Mufti Mohammad Amin al-Husayni is just another Arab Muslim intolerance, the plight of Israel - being a minority in a majority hostile middle east. [70] [71] [72] And even progressive, left wingers in Israel realize that Arab racism must go, and that "There will be no peace around here before Arabs view Jews as human beings." [73], or as others have phrased it: Racism and Middle East Politics, As long as middle-eastern Arabs teach their children to hate Jews, there will be no lasting peace [74]. 'Facts and Logic About the Middle East' asks: Racism in the Islamic World How can peace prevail in the Middle East in the face of Islamic bigotry and hate? When will moderate Muslims speak out? [75], and the phenomenon of the new anti-Semitism which demonizes Jews and Israel alike, has fused itself with the "old" European anti Jewish bigotry [76]. Saddam Hussein's "Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Persians, Jews, and Flies" [77] who also led a racist [78] genocide campaign [79] against the Kurds, coincides with that in moments before his death, he shouted: 'Palestine is Arab', meaning only Arab. [80], as part of a culture of hatred, the racism that denies historic roots of the Jews to Israel [81].

The first recorded Arab attack on Jews in Palestine was already back in 1886 in Petach Tikva [82][83] [84] [85].

Regarding the racist expulsion of 850,000 to 900,000 Jews from Arab countries [86] [87] the ethnic cleansing of the Jews [88], the UN Watch Mar 19, 2008 has raised the importance of Historic truth in: Testimony at the UN - "Racism and Historical Truth: Jewish Refugees from Arab Lands" [89].

On anti-Jewish racism's effect on clarity of the middle east, Interfaith Office Acknowledges (May 2008) Anti-Jewish Motifs and Stereotypes in Commentary About Arab-Israeli Conflict [90], concern about Carter's pro-Arabism and veteran historian of Islam and the Middle East [91] & Bernard Lewis is concerned that the �Arab strain of racism, untruths and hatred against Jews and Israel is not only more virulent than its European counterpart, but is not counterbalanced by true scholarship or competing reason.� As a result, he believes, attitudes and beliefs �long discredited in the modernity of western countries take root with gullible, impressionable Middle Eastern audiences from a pre-modern culture.� [92].

There's extensive research on 'Palestinian Anti-Semitism' [93], In its official media, the PA daily described: The Fable of the Holocaust [94], the JCPA elaborates About Anti-Semitism among Palestinian Authority Academics and how The Palestinian Authority's academic anti-Semitism has built an extensive case against Jewish existence [95] This Palestinian racism is particularly dangerous because this hatred of Jews is portrayed as the will of Allah. [96] The Arab-Palestinian racism of killing only Jews In Israel, for the sole reason of being Jewish. they target every Jew, regardless of his or her individual political views, and they apologize when they accidentally kill a non-Jew, regardless of his political view. [97]

Rachel Neuwirth Wrote "Judenrein Palestine?" about Arabs forcing Israel to remove Jews from their historic Judea and asks: Why can�t Jews live in their historic homeland if there really is peace? After all, there are 1.2 million Arabs living as citizens of Israel in the one Jewish country in the world, while there are only a handful of Jews living in any of the 22 Arab countries. In fact, in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, not only is it illegal for Jews to be citizens, they are not even allowed to live there. Therefore, she proves, instead of Israel being the "apartheid state" in the region, it is the Arab world that is not only apartheid, but also racist and religiously exclusive" [98].

[edit]Anti-African

Arab Racism against Black Africans [99] [100], Darfur is but one example of Arab racism toward non-Arabs within the broader Arab world [101]. In the New York Times June 5, 1988 about Libya's leader: Qaddafi is bringing a truly racist crusade against Chad and Africa, Chad's President, Hissen Habre, told [102]. blacks who live in Arab countries subject to racism, most Arabs refer to blacks as "Abed" which means "slave" in Arabic. [103]. Umarlee details it: �Ugly Black Women�, Perfect Arab Wives, and Matters of Race, Arab racism is not akin to American white racism. Let it be said that Arab racism is different from white (American) racism [104]. In an article in The Guardian 2008, titled 'A paler shade of black' a former Sudanese Arab described his growing up (by his family) as "superior" to blacks, that were referred to as "abd" (slave), yet when he moved to Saudi Arabia he found out that his Arabness didn't measure up, he wasn't Arab enough in Saudi Arabia's racist society. [105] Some charge the Arab attitude on Darfur, 'to the True Nature of the Twin Fascisms of Islamism and Pan-Arabism' [106].

Eritreans in Egypt suffer from racism [107], in 2008 alone at least 20 Darfurian refugees (who tried to break free from Egypt's oppression into democratic Israel) have already died at the hands of Egyptian forces [108].

Palestinian-Arab Racism: Secretary of State Rice has been the subject of some vicious racial attacks [109] including an anti-black Racist Rice Cartoon in Palestinian Authority's controlled Press Al Quds 'Black spinster' label pinned on Condi Rice Palestinian media use racist terms including 'colored dark skin lady'[110] Condemned by Black Activists [111].

[edit]Genocide in Sudan

The Christian Science Monitor 2004 affirms that Racism is at root of Sudan's Darfur crisis [112], a writer at RaceandHistory.com calls it 'Arab Racism And Imperialism In Sudan' [113], Darfur crisis linked to Arab racism, Slavery [114]. and this genocide has been described as an example of Arab racism at its worst [115]. Sudanese decry the "Apology of racism", that some Sudanese people of Arabic origin consider themselves superior than the indigenous Sudanese [116]. Der Spiegel writes about the Janjaweed: Sudan's War within a War - regime that uses tribal conflicts and Arab racism [117]. Pundits of Sudan write about "Arab racism, Islamic bigotry and discriminatory practices are the most divisive issues in the Sudan" and its terrible effect, crimes on non-Arab Sudanese [118].

Palin is not saying anything new...

Pirouz Maghsoudnia — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:09:37 EDT

Have you noticed that Palin has not said any new (or true) since their convention? Does she even understand the Middle East and its complex structure? Is the press ever going to challenge her on these issues?

Today we saw in the news that Palin belonged to this ultra right church in Alaska and just recently stated that "Pray for our military men and women who are striving do to what is right. Also for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for -- that there is a plan, and that plan is God's plan." We got in this mess when Bush relied on divine direction to invade Iraq now we have this crazy VP candidate making statements like this.

I guess I have to say god help us if McCaine and Palin are elected! And maybe these Republican idiots can get some divine direction on how to get out of Iraq because I don't see them being able to figure it out on their own.

How Would Sarah Palin handle Israel and the Middle East in a Foreign Policy Crisis?

Robin Z — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:26:23 EDT

All evening I've watched the latest news clip of Sarah Palin, from June 2008, speaking in her church and flagrantly blurring the lines between religion, politics, and the Alaska pipeline.

I respect people of all faiths, creeds, colors, and backgrounds. Each and every one of us has the right to practice what we believe, including Sarah Palin.

My concern is that our political leaders, who choose to run for, and are elected to, their positions, need to be able to separate their personal life from their public life, and be able to represent all Americans, of every faith, creed, color, and background, without using their own religion as prominent basis for their words and actions.

Seeing and hearing Sarah Palin, Governor of the State of Alaska, invoke her religion into her politics is not a separation of Church and State.

Palin's lack of foreign policy experience is troubling enough in its own right. But if McCain wins the election and Palin is called upon at some point to assume the role of president, how would she handle Israel and the Middle East? Is she even capable of making unbiased decisions of behalf of people of faiths other than her own?

This is frightening to me beyond all measure.

The Surge as Told by whom...?

Nia "Hussein" J. — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 05:08:14 EDT

Outmaneuvered And Outranked, Military Chiefs Became Outsiders

By Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 8, 2008; A01

At the Joint Chiefs of Staff in late November 2006, Gen. Peter Pace was facing every chairman's nightmare: a potential revolt of the other chiefs. Two months earlier, the JCS had convened a special team of colonels to recommend options for reversing the deteriorating situation in Iraq. Now, it appeared that the chiefs' and colonels' advice was being marginalized, if not ignored, by the White House.

During a JCS meeting with the colonels Nov. 20, Chairman Pace dropped a bomb: The White House was considering a "surge" of additional troops to quell the violence in Iraq. "Would it be a good idea?" Pace asked the group. "If so, what would you do with five more brigades?" That amounted to 20,000 to 30,000 more troops, depending on the number of support personnel.

Pace's question caught the chiefs and colonels off guard. The JCS hadn't recommended a surge, and Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Iraq commander, was opposed to one of that magnitude. Where had this come from? Was it a serious option? Was it already a done deal?

Pace said he had another White House meeting in two days. "I want to be able to give the president a recommendation on what's doable," he said.

A rift had been growing between the country's military and civilian leadership, and in several JCS meetings that November, the chiefs' frustrations burst into the open. They had all but dismissed the surge option, worried that the armed forces were already stretched to the breaking point. They favored a renewed effort to train and build up the Iraqi security forces so that U.S. troops could begin to leave.

"Why isn't this getting any traction over there, Pete?" Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief, asked at one session inside the "tank," the military's secure conference room for candid and secret debates. Was the president being briefed?

"I can only get part of it before him," Pace said, "and I'm not getting any feedback."

Pace, Schoomaker and Casey found themselves badly out of sync with the White House in the fall of 2006, finally losing control of the war strategy altogether after the midterm elections. Schoomaker was outraged when he saw news coverage that retired Gen. Jack Keane, the former Army vice chief of staff, had briefed the president Dec. 11 about a new Iraq strategy being proposed by the American Enterprise Institute, the conservative think tank.

"When does AEI start trumping the Joint Chiefs of Staff on this stuff?" Schoomaker asked at the next chiefs' meeting.

Pace, normally given to concealing his opinions, let down the veil slightly and gave a little sigh. But he didn't answer. Schoomaker thought Pace was too much of a gentleman to be effective in a business where forcefulness and a willingness to get in people's faces were survival skills. "They weren't listening to what Pete [Pace] was saying," Schoomaker said later in private. "Or Pete wasn't carrying the mail, or he was carrying it incompletely."

In several tank meetings, Adm. Michael Mullen, chief of naval operations, voiced concern that the politicians were going to find a way to place the blame for Iraq on the military. "They're orchestrating this to dump in our laps," Mullen said. He raised the point so many times that Schoomaker thought the Navy leader sounded "almost paranoid."

* * *

The atmosphere in the tank was tense Monday, Nov. 27, 2006, as Pace briefed the chiefs and the colonels on a White House meeting about Iraq the day before. J.D. Crouch, a deputy to national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, had presented the results of a secret strategy review on how to respond to the escalating violence. "I walked out happy because I got my views on the table," Pace said, making it clear that this was not always the case.

The president, Pace told the group, is "leaning into announcing a new phase in the war that will help us achieve our original end state. . . . By April 1, 2007, we would have five more brigades in Iraq."

Schoomaker was dismayed. Suppose the surge didn't work? "What is our fallback plan?" he asked.

There was no fallback, Pace replied.

"Are people engaged on this," Schoomaker asked almost defiantly of the surge proponents, "or is this politics?"

"They are engaged," Pace replied. But if progress is still lacking "after we surge five brigades," Pace said, "then you are forced to conscription, which no one wants to talk about." To mention a draft was to invite the ghosts of Vietnam into the tank.

"Folks keep talking about the readiness of U.S. forces. Ready to do what?" Schoomaker growled. "We need to look at our strategic depth for handling other threats. How do we get bigger? And how do we make what we have today more ready? This is not just about Iraq!"

Part of the chiefs' job was to figure out how to accelerate the military's overall global readiness and capacity, Schoomaker said. "I sometimes feel like it is hope against hope," he said. "I feel like Nero did when Rome was burning. It just worries the hell out of me."

Several colonels wanted to applaud. It worried them, too. Others disagreed, feeling it was more important to focus on the current war. But they all maintained their poker faces.

"Look, no one is whistling 'Dixie' here," Pace told the group. "The president and the White House understand the resource constraints."

It was not clear that anyone believed what the chairman was saying, or whether even Pace believed it.

"We need to position ourselves properly for the decision likely to come," Pace said. "The sense of urgency is over Iraq, but not over the other issues."

Mullen said the all-volunteer force might break under the strain of extended and repeated deployments. "I am still searching for the grand strategy here," Mullen said. "How does a five-brigade surge over the next few months fit into the larger picture? We have so many other issues and challenges: Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea and places we are not even thinking about today."

* * *

In Baghdad, Gen. Casey realized that he had lost a basic, necessary ingredient for a commanding general in wartime. He had lost the confidence of the president, a stunning and devastating realization.

He wasn't alone. The president was not listening to Casey's boss, Gen. John P. Abizaid at Central Command, anymore, either.

"Yeah, I know," the president said to Abizaid at a National Security Council session in December, "you're going to tell me you're against the surge."

Yes, Abizaid replied, and then presented his argument that U.S. forces needed to get out of Iraq in order to win.

"The U.S. presence helps to keep a lid on," Bush responded. There were other benefits. A surge would "also help here at home, since for many the measure of success is reduction in violence," Bush said. "And it'll help [Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-] Maliki to get control of the situation. A heavier presence will buy time for his government."

The rest of Iraq wasn't as tenuous as Baghdad, Abizaid said. "But it's the capital city that looks chaotic," Bush said. "And when your capital city looks chaotic, it's hard to sustain your position, whether at home or abroad."

* * *

The chiefs' frustration grew so intense that Pace told Bush, "You need to sit down with them, Mr. President, and hear from them directly."

Hadley saw it as an opportunity. He arranged for Bush and Vice President Cheney to visit the JCS in the tank Dec. 13, 2006. The president would come armed with what Hadley called "sweeteners" -- more budget money and a promise to increase the size of the active-duty Army and Marine Corps. It would also be a symbolic visit, important to the chiefs because the president would be on their territory.

"Mr. President," Schoomaker began, "you know that five brigades is really 15."

Schoomaker was in charge of generating the force for the Army. Sending five new brigades to Iraq meant another five would have to take their place in line, and to sustain the surge, another five behind them. This could not be done, Schoomaker said, without either calling up the National Guard and Reserves or extending the 12-month tours in Iraq. The Army had hoped to go in the other direction and cut tours to nine months.

Would a surge transform the situation? Schoomaker asked. If not, why do it? "I don't think that you have the time to surge and generate enough forces for this thing to continue to go," he said.

"Pete, I'm the president," Bush said. "And I've got the time."

"Fine, Mr. President," Schoomaker said. "You're the president."

Several of the chiefs noted that the five brigades were effectively the strategic reserve of the U.S. military, the forces on hand in case of flare-ups elsewhere in the world. Surprise was a way of international life, the chiefs were saying. For years, Bush had been making the point that it was a dangerous world. Did he want to leave the United States in the position of not being able to deal with the next manifestation of that danger?

Bush told the chiefs that they had to win the war at hand. He turned again to Schoomaker. "Pete, you don't agree with me, do you?"

"No," Schoomaker said. "I just don't see it. I just don't. But I know right now that it's going to be 15 brigades. And how we're going to get those 15 brigades, I don't know. This is going to require more than we can generate. You're stressing the force, Mr. President, and these kids just see deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan for the indefinite future."

* * *

"The tank meeting was a very important meeting," Bush told me during a May 2008 interview. "In my own mind, I'm sure I didn't want to walk in with my mind made up and not give these military leaders the benefit of a discussion about a big decision."

The president said that if he were just pretending to be open-minded, "you get sniffed out. . . . I might have been leaning, but my mind was open enough to be able to absorb their advice."

I told him that, based on my reporting, some of the chiefs thought he had already decided, that they had sniffed him out.

"They may have thought I was leaning, and I probably was," Bush said, noting that the chiefs had felt free to express themselves. "But the door wasn't shut."

Still, Bush fully understood the power of his office.

"Generally," he said, "when the commander-in-chief walks in and says, done deal, they say, 'Yes sir, Mr. President.' "

* * *

Just after Christmas, while in the United States, Casey got an e-mail from one of his contacts. "Hey, you need to know that the White House is throwing you under the bus," it read.

A couple of days later, Abizaid phoned Casey with a warning. "Look," Abizaid said, "the surge is coming. Get out of the way." Casey was soon offered a promotion to Army chief of staff, and in February 2007, he left Iraq, replaced by Gen. David H. Petraeus.

The president said later in an interview, "The military, I can remember well, said, 'Okay, fine. More troops. Two brigades.' And I turned to Steve [Hadley] and said, 'Steve, from your analysis, what do you think?' He, being the cautious and thorough man he is, went back, checked, came back to me and said, 'Mr. President, I would recommend that you consider five. Not two.' And I said, 'Why?' He said, 'Because it is the considered judgment of people who I trust and you trust that we need five in order to be able to clear, hold and build.' "

The views of those trusted people came largely through back channels, rather than through the president's established set of military advisers -- Casey's deputy saying that a surge wouldn't work with fewer than five brigades and Jack Keane making the same case to Hadley and Vice President Cheney.

Hadley maintained that the number "comes out of my discussions with Pete Pace."

"Okay, I don't know this," Bush said, interrupting. "I'm not in these meetings, you'll be happy to hear, because I got other things to do."

So the president did not know what his principal military adviser, Gen. Pace, had recommended. Pace, however, had told the chiefs Nov. 20, 2006, that the White House had asked what could be done with five extra brigades.

* * *

The president announced the surge decision Jan. 10, 2007. Five more brigades would go to Baghdad; 4,000 Marines would head to Anbar province.

The next morning, he went to Fort Benning, Ga., to address military personnel and their families. His decision had been opposed by Casey and Abizaid, his military commanders in Iraq. Pace and the Joint Chiefs, his top military advisers, had suggested a smaller increase, if any at all. Schoomaker, the Army chief, had made it clear that the five brigades didn't really exist under the Army's current policy of 12-month rotations. But on this morning, the president delivered his own version of history.

"The commanders on the ground in Iraq, people who I listen to -- by the way, that's what you want your commander-in-chief to do. You don't want decisions being made based upon politics or focus groups or political polls. You want your military decisions being made by military experts. They analyzed the plan, and they said to me and to the Iraqi government: 'This won't work unless we help them. There needs to be a bigger presence.' "

Bush went on, "And so our commanders looked at the plan and said, 'Mr. President, it's not going to work until -- unless we support -- provide more troops.' "

Brady Dennis and Evelyn Duffy contributed to this report.

The Washington Post - Irrelevancy Number 2

John DesMarteau, MD — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 01:45:24 EDT

The Washington Post editorial [The Final Sprint, Sun Sep 7, 2008] stated that neither candidate "offered bold or innovative proposals." I don't know what the Post's editors were listening to but I distinctly heard Barack state the specific goal of getting us off Middle Eastern oil in 10 years in his acceptance speech. Some have even taking to calling it the Apollo project after President Kennedy's 1961 call to land a man on the moon within 10 years. I’d say it’s a bold and innovative proposal, one that’s probably more difficult and costly than even landing a man on the moon. This is just another example of how irrelevant the Washington Post has sadly become. And yes I sent a letter to them.

Losing Afghanistan

Chinni — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:21:08 EDT

Losing Afghanistan
Prolonging this good war may be worse than persisting in the bad one in Iraq.
By Leon Hadar - July 28 2008, The American Conservative

..First, we need to remember that the outside military and financial backers of the Taliban and by extension of al-Qaeda—the only governments to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government in Kabul—were our staunch allies Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates..
..We formed an ad hoc partnership with the Northern Alliance, providing them money and arms while at the same time pressuring the Pakistanis and the Saudis to end their support for groups responsible for the deaths of 3,000 innocent Americans. This was an example of a sensible Realpolitik policy—co-operating with a mixed bag of local and regional players to capture our enemies and destroy their military infrastructure. An ideological crusade to bring democracy to Afghanistan wasn’t part of the plan.
Pursuing the same kind of realistic approach, we could have encouraged the remnants of the Northern Alliance to work with their regional backers to co-opt Pakistan and members of Afghanistan’s Pashtun majority into an imperfect political settlement. This, in turn, would probably have led to the creation of a loose confederation of ethnic groups, locally controlled and secured by backing from Russia, India, Turkey, Iran—and Pakistan and the United States. Instead, we insisted on imposing our man, the Pashtun Hamid Karzai, as head of a central government..
..Iraq and Afghanistan skeptics recognize that both countries are involved in civil wars, with tribal forces fighting over territory and resources in order to preserve their power and identity. Their political, economic, and religious interests don’t necessarily correspond to or conflict with American interests. After all, in Afghanistan, Pakistan backed al-Qaeda and Iran supported the Northern Alliance. In Iraq, the U.S. has partnered with a Shi’ite movement with ties to Iran..
..One hopes that Obama and company will resolve their cognitive dissonance by modifying their belief about the moral benefit and policy utility of nation-building. Indeed, the new administration should abandon these fantasies and instead embrace a realist policy of working with regional powers to secure the limited but actual U.S. interests in Afghanistan and the rest of South and Central Asia—weakening the influence of radical Islam; damaging the infrastructure of terrorist groups; preventing unstable regimes and terrorist organizations from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction..

Arab Muslims first class citizens in Israel whereas Israeli Jews are second class citizens

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 11:31:07 EDT

Palestinian Arab Muslims first class citizens in Israel whereas Israeli Jews are second class citizens?

Imagine, Israeli non Arabs (i.e., Jews) have to put up with:1) Back stabbing -- example #1:Constant finding out on more and more Israeli Arabs aiding genocide bombers (whether with info or more than that), stabbing the very Israel, they're citizens of, thus indirectly murdering their fellow Israelis, the Israeli Jews...2) Back stabbing -- example #2:

The Israeli Arab parliament members constantly whine about being "second class" citizens, after getting free education and achieving whatever they achieve, inside equal-rights & equal-access democractic Israel. As payback, these back stabbers are tarnishing Israel's image all over, especially on Arab global media.

3) Uneven rights -- Arab's advantage over Jews:

Israeli Arabs (unlike Israeli Jews) are exempt from serving in Israeli army (which is naturally for the protection of all Israelis), still they enjoy the same rights as Israeli Jews: voting, education, free speech, etc.

4) Now the favorite part: Israeli Courts (& often security) favor Israeli Arabs over Jews
Who's second class now?

5) Wait, there's more: Israeli government allowing Arabs more rights far MORE than Jews, blatantly, especially in access to land.

Who's second class now?
Favoring Arabs over Jews Inside Israel
Fact Sheet #24:
Israel's Security Fence Every effort is being made to exclude Palestinian villages from the area within the fence and no territories are being annexed... Israel's Supreme Court took up the grievances of Palestinians and required the government to move the fence in the area near Jerusalem to make things easier for the Palestinians. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/talking/24_fence.html

Fence Rulings: Democracy in Action Israel's Supreme Court sided with the Palestinians in a precedent-setting decision Wednesday, ordering the government to reroute part of its West Bank ... http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/critiques/Fence_Rulings_Democrac y_in_Action.asp

Divesting from Morality [Jews can't live in Arab states or in the Palestinian Authority but] ... Israeli Arabs sit in the Knesset, serve on the Israeli Supreme Court and ... http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/dershowitz/Articles/morality.html

Nightmare or Dream (Eugene Narrett, PhD) May, 2000 When Jews try to collect other debts from Arabs, the same ingratitude emerges, not just from the Arabs, but enforced by Israeli courts where "the chances ...
http://www.freeman.org/m_online/may00/narrett.htm

Arabs, Muslims first class citizens in democratic Israel? (Temple Mount shut to non-Muslims on election eve) http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? cid=1139395680496&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Temple Mount shut to non-Muslims on election eve
The Temple Mount - was closed to Jews today in response to Muslim threats of violence if Jews were allowed to visit. ... (July - 2004) [clearly more rights to Arabs in Israel than for any Jews] http://www.ourjerusalem.com/ourjerusalem/story/oj20040728.html

Expulsion from 'Peace House' in Hevron?... The extreme-left group Peace Now has been pressuring Peretz to expel the Jewish families, claiming that Jews should need special government permission to buy Arab houses. The group has made no similar request requiring special permission for Arabs to buy Jewish homes.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/121909

Army Declares Hevron Closed to Jews - Inside Israel - Israel News ...Arabs then sued in Israel's Supreme Court against what they called the "infiltration" of the Jews to the stores, and the Court ruled in their favor ...
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3? id=96728

Moreover, when it comes to residential land, the ILA sometimes offers Israeli Arabs more favorable terms from than it does to Israeli Jews. Thus, the ILA charged the equivalent of $24,000 for a capital lease on a quarter of an acre in new Jewish communities near Beersheva while Bedouin families in the nearby community of Rahat paid only $150 for the same amount of land.16 In a different case, when a Jewish policeman from Beersheva, Eleizer Avitan, applied to the ILA to lease land in a Bedouin community under the same highly subsidized terms available to the Bedouins, the ILA refused to lease him land there under any terms, so he sued. Israel's Supreme Court ruled in favor of the ILA, saying that what might be viewed as ILA discrimination against the Jewish citizen Avitan was justified as affirmative action for Bedouin citizens.17
http://www.meforum.org/article/370

In several cases, where Palestinian farmers utilized the Israeli court system to lodge complaints that the army was unnecessarily taking land without proper military purpose, the Israeli High Court of Justice decided in favor of the plaintiffs. The army site at Beth El (near Ramallah) is the best-known case, and probably one of the few cases in all of world history where the legal system of the victorious country decided in favor of the defeated, contrary to the security-related demands of the army. The IDF was forced to move its base about ten kilometers further west, to accommodate the land claims of the local Palestinians. http://www.think-israel.org/meir-levi.settlements.html

Israel's Supreme Court is among the finest courts in the world today. ... We see that the Israelis routinely decide in favor of the Palestinians against their own government... http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp? ID=13590

Israeli Court: Israel must re-route (the life saving anti-terror) barrier (because of inconvenience of some Arab 'Palestinians) August 2007
http://news.yahoo. com/s/ap/20070904/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_barrier_9

Israel's Supreme Court is perhaps the worst enemy and offender favoring Arabs over Jews in its self-image of supreme fairness and justice. It has given its "supreme" ruling against an area of peace and security which should be left to military and security experts - a supreme ruling against the security barrier and separation fence against terrorism in support of a similar stupid ruling by the Arab-Islamist controlled U.N. International Court of Justice (or Injustice as the case may be). What about the rights of Jews in Arab controlled and dominated lands and nations? Are there any? http://www.opinioneditorials.com/guestcontributors/gfitleberg_20050130.html

Israeli text book tells Arab story - World - theage.com.au Israel approves school text book acknowledging to country's minority ... what had been British-ruled Palestine prompted an invasion by Arab armies and the ... http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/israeli-text-book-tells-arab- story/2007/07/23/1185043028015.html

Affirmative Action ? the Israeli Edition It is now official. Last week, the Israeli Council on Higher Education decided to make Jews second class citizens within Israeli universities. Yes, after 1,300 years in which Jews were discriminated against in the Middle East and discrimination in favor of Arabs took place, the semi-governmental Council on Higher Education has decided that Israeli universities must discriminate in favor of Arab. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/844

More on Arabs, Muslims (first class citizens inside Israel) having more rights than Jews in Israel Jerusalem holy sites

The Israeli government shied away from ensuring the right of Jews to pray on the temple Mount, opting instead to grant the Muslims the right to administer the Mount. Jewish prayer was immediately forbidden.

Regardless of what the Judaic law says about permitting Jews on the temple mount, the issue of Arabs, Muslims INSIDE Israel's democracy having far more rights is overwhelming.

http://www.templeinstitute.org/gallery_45.htm

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PA Arab Squatters Remain on Jerusalem Property
16 November 07 11:38by Ezra HaLevi(IsraelNN.com) Yitzchak Herskovitz, in his eighties, continues to battle Arab squatters in the courts as yet another eviction was postponed Sunday.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/SendMail.aspx? print=print&type=0&item=124251

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(Arab Racism even inside Israel, So Israel is a free democracy and Arabs are elected into high offices.... whereas in "Palestinian" controlled areas a Jew... can't even live there - Islamic apartheid & Judenrein!
What then do Arab representatives do instead?
Stab Israel in the back and call for it's destruction and for it to be a fascist 'Arab Only State'....)
Arab MK: 'Palestine Belongs to Arabs, Not Jews' - News Briefs ...Tibi wrote in the editorial that Palestine belongs to its Arab residents, not to the Jewish occupiers. Tibi told Palestinian Authority Arabs in Ramallah ...

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/130741
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Gov't Allows Arabs To Squat on Jewish Farmland 22:19 Jan 07, '07
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=118929 [again the Israeli very govt. gives more rights to Israeli-Arabs intruders over Israeli-Jews].

(IsraelNN.com) The Civil Lands Administration has allowed Arabs from Yatta,
near Hevron, to squat on land 10 miles away that has been farmed by Jews for
10 years. Nearby residents of Beit Yatir, in the southern Hevron Hills,
protested on the property Friday, claiming that the presence of the Arabs
presents a danger to the area.
"Their tractors are unlicensed and they drive them on the roads at night
without lights," said a Yatir spokesman. Army officers who arrived on the
scene confirmed that the Arabs left their identity cards at a nearby
checkpoint because they had no permit to live on the grounds, but Civil Lands
officers later said temporary permission would be given until the dispute is
settled in the courts.

---

Jew Fights for his home, invaded by Arab Squatters

http://esseragaroth.blogspot.com/2007/07/jew-fights-for-his-home.html
July 2007

Yitzhaq Hershkovitz is fighting to regain control of his house from Arab squatters in "East" Jerusalem.

The INN TV Report with Aharon Deutch can been viewed by clicking here http://www.israelnationalnews.com/TV/?act=one&id=1988

...After a 15-year fight, Mr. Hershkovitz finally obtained a court order to have the squatters removed. Yet, the police has not been helpful in enforcing the evacuation. One of the issues was that the Arabs were keeping their goats hidden inside the house, which apparently is against the zoning regulations. However, every time the police arrived to execute the order, or rather do a pre-execution investigation, the goats are taken outside through the back an and hidden somehow. There is now a stay on the eviction order.

Fortunately, he has been getting some support from friends, including the Defense-training and Torah-study, IBF Canine Unit, based in K'far Tapu'ah.

I'll try to find out more information about what can be done to assist and support him.

Again, and again, Israeli Arabs are often favored OVER Israeli Jews, Did somebody (in the Arabist camp) say "apartheid"?

Israeli Arabs are first class citizens over Israeli Jews!

___

israelinsider: politics: Police order Temple Mount closed ahead of demo by Jewish activists
(April 7, 2005)
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/5288.htm

---

One Jerusalem -- Blog -- Help Keep Jerusalem United! After spending over an hour discussing Israel's challenges I came away with the ... Anyway, since Olmert prefers to beat and threaten Jews in Hebron, ...
http://www.onejerusalem.org/blog/archives/2006/01/israels_challen.asp

The Jewish struggle Against Arabs in Israel Wherever there's a problem with Arabs, a new "disengagement" plan?
http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/4511.htm

Supreme Court Rulings - Jews Protest in Jerusalem to protest against the recent anti-Jewish rulings of the Israeli Supreme Court. ...
http://www.ahavat- israel.com/protest/rulings.php

An Israeli Supreme Court ruling did not deny that the land was Jewish-owned, but ordered the Jews to be moved out in order that ... sinners not go unpunished. ... http://www.ourjerusalem.com/action/story/protest- against-the-pogrom-in-amona.html

"The Hell of Israel Is Better than the Paradise of Arafat the 200000 Arab residents of Jerusalem preferred to remain under Israeli ... In fact, most of the Arabs in the city prefer to live under Israeli rule ...
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2534

Israel is the only country in the Middle East in which an Arab can file a case against his country in the Supreme Court. Israel's Supreme Court is among the finest courts in the world today. It enforces the rule of law on a daily basis against inevitable abuses that occur when a nation is at war. As we look at the United States Supreme Court this week there are two big cases -- the Hamdi case and the Padilla case. At question is if we can detain and hold terrorist combatants at Guantanamo indefinitely, while deciding if they are prisoners of war or common criminals.
One has only to look to Israel, which see resolved these things 20 years ago.
We see that the Israelis routinely decide in favor of the Palestinians against their own government. In 1989, Justice Brennan, perhaps the most liberal justice in America's court, went to Israel at the invitation of Justice Aharon Barak of the Israeli Supreme Court. Brennan said, "God forbid that terrorism should ever come to the shores of the United States. At least we in America have the model to help balance the needs of security against the needs of liberty. That model is Israel."
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp? ID=13590

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URGENT: Free Daniel Pinner b4 23.3.06 [Archive] - Israel Forum Daniel claims that he only shot in the air to disperse the Arab attackers. The judge favored the testimonies given by several Arabs, despite countless ...
http://www.israelforum.com/board/archive/index.php/t- 9920.html

Creating a Palestinian Apartheid State?
http://www.freeman.org/m_online/jan05/pasko.php

There are currently 12 Arabs elected to the 120-member Israeli Knesset representing Arab nationalist, communist and Islamic parties. There is an Arab justice on the Israeli Supreme Court. This is apartheid? (Dec - 2006) http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/stories/MYSA122706.07B.gurwitz.1 dd1635.html

Myths VS Facts

Human Rights in Israel and the Territories Today, within Israel, Jews are a majority, but the Arab minority are full citizens who enjoy equal rights. Arabs are represented in the Knesset, ... http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf18.html

Israeli Arabs: Expectations and Realities, Abdel Rahman Zuabi, Deputy President of the Nazareth District Court, became the first Arab to sit on Israel's Supreme Court. ... http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp478.htm

A Free People in Our Land: The Status of the Arab Sector in Israel ... an Arab Justice was appointed to the Supreme Court and Arab ...
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Facts+about+Israel- +The+State/A+Free+People+in+Our+Land-+The+Arab+Sector.htm

Israeli Arab explodes Mideast 'lies'
Lebanese woman says she discovered freedom in Jewish state... "As a Middle Easterner brought up on this patent 'Israel is a racist state' propaganda, I discovered it is total hate-inspired nonsense," she said." I've seen with my own eyes what kind of society Israel is. I consider Israel to be one of the most multi-racial and multi-cultural countries in the world. There are no racial restrictions on becoming a citizen of Israel like there are in many Arab countries. Remember, Jews can't live in the neighboring Arab Kingdom of Jordan or in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."
She explained that more than 100 different countries of the world are represented in the population of Israel.
"Consider how the Israeli government spent tens of millions of dollars airlifting more than 40,000 black Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1984 and 1991," she said. "Since 2001 Israel has reached out to help others taking in non-Jewish refugees from Lebanon, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Vietnam, Liberia, Congo and even Bosnian Muslims. How many such refugees have the 22 states in the Arab league taken in? The Arab world won't even give Palestinian refugees citizenship in their host countries."
She added that more than 1 million Arabs are full Israel citizens, that an Arab sits on the Supreme Court of Israel, that there are Arab political parties expressing views inimical to the state of Israel sitting in the Knesset, that women are equal partners in Israel and have complete human rights.
"Show me an Arab nation with a Jew in its government," she challenged. "Show me an Arab country with half as many Jewish citizens as Israel has Arab citizens. I'll borrow some of your academic freedom now and say that Arab nations are the real racist and oppressive states."
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43175

Israelis aren't 'racist' - they're worried
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? cid=1167467807212&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

"Apartheid"? The High Court and leading Israeli Arab Politicians http://www.beyondimages.info/b53.html

AJN - Israeli Arab involvement in terror grows Since the intifada began in September 2000 -- and Israeli Arabs rioted in sympathy ... scores of Israeli Arabs have been detained for alleged contacts with ..
http://www.ajn.com.au/pages/archives/intifada/0028-intifada- 02.html

Twisted Words and Phrases (2) More examples of Arab propaganda, giving new meaning to old words.
http://www.factsandlogic.org/ad_87.html

FLAME: The Arabs of Israel: Are they (really) a "persecuted minority? Like all other Israeli citizens, they have full rights to vote and to hold elective office. Both Arabs and Druze hold seats in the Knesset, the Israeli ...
http://www.factsandlogic.org/ad_08.html

Middle -East-Info.org - Arabs and Muslims in Israel Israeli Arabs and Muslims have the right to vote and to hold public office, ... They have full rights to citizenship. They are free to speak their minds. ...
http://www.middle-east- info.org/gateway/arabsinisrael/index.htm

Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict To the contrary, today one-fifth of Israel's citizens are non-Jews, including over one million Arabs, and Arabic is an official national language. ... http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=414

Arab Refugees and the Right of Return After the end of hostilities in 1949, there were 140000 Arabs in Israel. ... the Jews lived for generations as second-class citizens in a primitive, ... http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~samuel/refugees.html

The Jewish Refugees From Arab Countries - Israel's War Against ...Jews had never been more than "second-class citizens" under Arab rule, the report says, but their life became "simply untenable" after Israel appeared. ...
http://www.israel-wat.com/jewishrefugees_eng.htm

The Arabs of Israel (Part 1) Israel is first and foremost a society of Jewish immigrants. ... The Arabs of Israel became bi-cultural and bi-lingual citizens, educated in accordance with ... http://www.wzo.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=24

IHC [In Muslim countries] Ethnic minorities such as Azeris, Arabs, Kurds, Turkomans and Baluchis, are treated as second-class citizens. Women in Iran are struggling for their rights, ...
http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl? source=3/e/050720029

Israeli Arabs: Expectations And Realities
http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp478.htm

WorldNetDaily: Israel: Island of justice in the Middle EastIsrael's High Court has ruled that the route, along which a 25-mile barrier ... in the Middle East, Israel is committed to justice for Jews and Arabs alike. ...
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39242

Myths & Facts - Human Rights in Israel and the Territories... the Israeli Supreme Court also ruled that the government cannot allocate land based on religion or ethnicity, and may not prevent Arab citizens ...
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf18.html

Israeli Arab appointed as a JNF [Jewish National Fund...] director despite court appeal ...Israeli Arab appointed as a JNF director despite court appeal-News and commentary relating ... where there are MKs from the Arab sector," .
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/878859.html

Lying About Discrimination With Statistics And let's not hear any nonsense about Israeli universities discriminating against Arabs, because they all discriminate in favor of Arabs under affirmative action ...
http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/21226/Lying_About_Discrimination_ With_Statistics.html

The Jewish struggle Against Arabs in Israel [and Courts favoring Arabs in Jews' historic land and that was redeemed by Jewish money]
http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/4511.htm

Arab Treatment of Palestinians There is much information regarding Israel's treatment of Palestinians. However there is not much out there discussing Arab treatment of Palestinian ...
http://www.themiddleeastnow.com/arabtreatmentofpalestinians.html

The "Brutal" Israeli Occupation? Every Arab who fell under Israeli "occupation" was free to live his life ... The Israeli treatment of captured populations had a lot in common with the ... http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/4/29/31242.shtml

AN ANSWER TO THE NEW ANTI-ZIONISTS: THE RIGHTS OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE TO A SOVEREIGN STATE IN THEIR HISTORIC HOMELAND http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp507.htm

A Free People in Our Land: The Status of the Arab Sector in Israel For the first time, an Arab Justice was appointed to the Supreme Court and Arab deputy ministers have served in Israel's Government. Arab citizens serve in ... http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Facts+about+Israel- +The+State/A+Free+People+in+Our+Land-+The+Arab+Sector.htm

YI Guide to the Israeli-Palestinian Dispute Distorting Israeli Arab RealityThe co-existence of Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel has long been a model for ... Miller's first claim -- that Israeli Arabs lack 'access to military or ...
http://www.youngisrael.org/israel.htm

Critiques Distorting Israeli Arab Reality http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/Distorting_Isra eli_Arab_Reality.asp

The missing piece http://powerlineblog.com/archives/013494.php

Review of The Forgotten Millions: The Modern Jewish Exodus from Arab Lands. The volume contains some first-class talent, mostly Israel academics, and they cover ... http://www.danielpipes.org/article/817

Dennis Prager -- First they came for Israel, then they came for America . ... everywhere in the Arab and Muslim worlds are usually second-class citizens at best and terribly ...
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0206/prager020706.php3

israelinsider: Views: A virtual tour of (so called) "Apartheid" Israel... a dhimmi (second class citizen) and an enemy of their state. ... In the Apartheid State of Israel there are almost one million Arabs. ...
http://web.israelinsider.com/views/6787.htm

JIMENA Jews Indigenous to the Middle East & North Africa were considered dhimmi, a "protected" group of second-class citizens. ... On May 15, 1948, five Arab armies invaded Israel with the intention of ...
http://www.jimena.org/faq.htm

The nature of the Jewish state Israeli Jews are a variegated people ? many look just like Arabs and vice versa. The charge of racism as we know it in the U.S. is no more than liberal ...
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp? ARTICLE_ID=34396

Myths & Facts - Israel?s Roots?The Jews have no claim to the land they call Israel.? ... During the British mandate alone, more than 100000 Arabs emigrated from neighboring countries and ...
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf1.html

Myths & Facts - Human Rights in Israel and the TerritoriesArabs in Israel have equal voting rights; in fact, it is one of the few places in ... More than one million Arabs live as free and equal citizens in Israel. ...
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf18.html

Jewish and Israel News from New York - The Jewish Week,In fact, according to UN statistics, more Jews were displaced from Arab countries ... as the rights of Jewish refugees are no less legitimate than those of ...
http://www.thejewishweek.com/top/editletcontent.php3? artid=5486

In the years that followed, the Israelis made their desert bloom. They built the only industrialized economy in the entire Middle East. They built the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. They treated the Arabs who remained in Israel well. To this day the very large Arab minority, which lives inside the state of Israel, has more rights and privileges than any other Arab population in the entire Middle East. http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp? ID=4454

'Arabs have good life under Israel'"I am sure that the Palestinian [Arabs] in Israel have more rights than in any other Arab country
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/394

The productivity and tolerance of the Jews in the state they created have given birth to an Arab citizenry inside Israel of more than one million people. ...
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/horowitz041002.asp

For non-Jewish citizens of Israel, the answer to all these questions is "Yes. Unequivocally." Israeli Arab citizens are by law equal to Jewish citizens; they enjoy the same rights and are legally protected from discrimination. Non-Jews enjoy every freedom that democracies recognize, including freedom of worship, the free expression and exercise of religion, equality of financial, material, and employment opportunity, political power, and all legal rights. Indeed, Israel's Declaration of Independence demands nothing less. According to the Declaration, the Jewish state "will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions." Israel's Arab citizens have, in fact, reached positions on Israel's Supreme Court and have elected powerful parties in the Israeli Knesset that fully participate in Israeli political life.
http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp507.htm

UJC -- Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Brief Guide for the ...And who knows better than the citizens of Israel, who include Holocaust survivors and refugees from communist lands and from Arab extremism, how dangerous ...
http://www.ujc.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=68620

Like "apartheid South Africa". ... non-Muslims are treated as second-class citizens (the despised Dhimmi). ...
http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/critiques/Pilger_Pilfers_the_Truth.a sp

Misc.

Jihad Watch: Slain Israeli Arab's father begs for sanity in PA My message first of all to the religious leaders, the Palestinian leadership, ... who reside as Israeli Arab citizens, repect the land they live in, ...
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/001716.php

Arutz Sheva - (Israel National News) Throughout the Arab world, women are routinely treated as second-class citizens or worse. In Saudi Arabia, women are prohibited by law from driving cars...
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=488

'Damour Massacre' [January 1976], The massacre of Christians in Lebanon by Syrian & Muslim 'Palestinians' [that brought the reprisal by Arab Christians against 'Palestinians' at the camps of 'Sabra Shatila' in 1982]

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:44:57 EDT

'Damour Massacre' [January 1976], The massacre of Christians in Lebanon by Syrian & Muslim 'Palestinians' [that brought the reprisal by Arab Christians against 'Palestinians' at the camps of 'Sabra Shatila' in 1982]
The MASSACRE at DAMOUR, (Jan 9) 1976
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/2587/damour.html

Do you not remember Damour Lebanon. Let me remind you. Arafat and the PLO plunged Lebanon into "massacres, rape, mutilation, rampages of looting and ... In January of 1976, the destruction of Damour, a town of some 25000 was completed by the PLO...
http://www.free-lebanon.com/LFPNews/hobeika_damour/hobeika_damour.html

Damour's Massacre Slideshow, Damour's Massacre, :: Syrian Crimes Slideshow....
http://www.truelebanon.bravehost.com/pics/dampics-slideshow.html

Lebanese Forces : Historical Fact: The Massacre and Destruction of ... Historical Fact: The Massacre and Destruction of Damour. Damour lay across the Sidon - Beirut highway about 20 km south of Beirut...
http://www.lebaneseforces.com/blastfromthepast002.asp

Unforgotten Massacre: Damour. January 20, 1976. Signs of the times ... Eventually, they escaped by sea in small rowing boats. Damour Massacre in Pictures ...
http://www.geocities.com/damour1976/index1.html

Lebanon - Islamists "Palestinians" massacre of Christians in Damour that brought Christian Arabs killing "Palestinians" in Sabra Shatila
http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/67476

Damour Lebanon, The Massacre and Destruction of Damour. Arafat and the PLO plunged Lebanon into "massacres, rape, mutilation, rampages of looting and killings. ...
http://www.falangist.com/damour.htm

Lebanon and Syria, The leader of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, Elie Hobeika, had had his fiancée raped and murdered by the Palestinians in the Damour massacre of Christians ...
http://markhumphrys.com/lebanon.html

Yasser Arafat’s PLO massacred 582 mostly Christians in Damour, Lebanon. ...
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=EBEC1CE9-86E9-4D5C-9C7E-9E81780EA692

The Forgotten Christians of Lebanon Once free and equal, Lebanon's Christians now struggle against tremendous odds in a ... on their way to Qana, traveled silently past Damour and Jiyya, ...
http://www.freedomszone.com/aggregator.php?id=44543

An Open Letter to Human Rights Watch
We Have Hundreds of Eye Witnesses to the Events at Sabra and Chatilla, Will You Call Them?
Your myopic vision of the Sabra and Chatilla massacres ignores the massacres perpetrated by Yasser Arafat and his murderers against the Christian Lebanese. Let me remind you of some of Arafat's actions (I am an eye witness):* The distribution of arms and money to the Islamists in Lebanon for the express purpose of subjecting the Christian Lebanese to ethnic cleansing.

* The massacre of the town of Chekka, in northern Lebanon, by Arafat forces, dozens of civilians, mostly Christians, were murdered and tortured by Arafat's hoodlums.

* In the massacre of the town of Damour, South of Beirut, dozens of Christians civilians were slaughtered, along with numerous rapes of young girls, were done by forces that came from those same Palestinian camps that you are defending.

* The massacre of the towns of Aintoura and Mtein, where groups of Palestinians murdered innocent Christian civilians solely because they were Christians .

* The daily assaults by the PLO forces against the Christian towns of Hadath, Ain-el Remmaneh, Jisr el Bacha, Dekaouneh, Beirut, and the Southern Metn, that resulted in hundred of Christian casualties murdered for defending their hometowns and existence. This was at a time when the Lebanese Government was paralyzed and could not send the Lebanese Army to halt the Palestinian atrocities due to Arab intervention in internal Lebanese affairs by the "Cairo" accords.
http://www.free-lebanon.com/LFPNews/Witnesses/witnesses.html

'Palestinian' Islamic Apartheid Persecution of Christians [Updated Aug. 2008]

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 09:44:42 EDT

'Palestinian' Islamic Apartheid Persecution of Christians [Updated Aug. 2008]

Arab Muslim Palestinians' Persecution of Christians

DHIMMITUDE, ISLAMIC APARTHEID

Arab "Palestinian" Christians have been suffering and STILL suffer from Arab "Palestinian" Muslim majority.

Just like the Arab Christian Lebanese in "Damour" (Yasir Arafat´s Planned Christian Genocide http://www.chretiens-et-juifs.org/article.php?voir%5B%5D=594&voir%5B%5D=3532 , Hobeika - Damour http://www.free-lebanon.com/LFPNews/hobeika_damour/hobeika_damour.html), where "Palestinian" Muslims massacred Christians senselessly, which brought the reprisal by Arab Christians upon Arab "Palestinian" Muslims in Sabra & shatila.

The Islamization of Bethlehem that has started by Yasser Arafat has forced Christians out.

The "Palestinian" Christians are forced to join the senseless criminal violence against Israeli victims, otherwise they are threatened.

Some Arab "Palestinians" that might be Christian won't admit the awful truth openly, that scared they are!
But some find courage to break the ranks like: http://shoebat.com/, a "Palestinian" Arab (former terrorist) who converted from Islam, terrorism, hatred & bloodshed to Christianity.Which is why he advocates now for Israel the real victim, exposes the lies and incitement he was exposed to while being Muslim.
Also see: http://arabsforisrael.com/

__________________________________

The truth about Christians in 'Palestine'
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31285

Christian persecution by Arafat
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30299

The Islamization of Bethlehem by Yassir Arafat
http://www.acpr.org.il/cloakrm/clk117.html

Palestinian Authority's Treatment of Christians
http://www.science.co.il/arab-israeli-conflict/articles/Imra-1997-10-30.asp

The Beleaguered Christians of the Palestinian-Controlled Areas, by ...Palestinian Christians have suffered as dhimmis for centuries. ...
http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp490.htm

Christians Fleeing Palestinian Controlled Areas In addition to the economic decline, there were several cases of physical attacks on Christians in Gaza, influenced by Islamist incitement against Israel ...
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/arabs/christianme1.html

Fact Sheets #59: Christians in the Palestinian Authority "The Islamic people want to kill us. That's their principle and belief. ... Relations between Palestinian Christians and Muslims have deteriorated in the ...
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/talking/59_ChristiansPA.html

Palestinian Christians: Victims, Not Partners
Human Events, Feb 16, 2004 by Spencer, Robert
E-mail Print Link This week the Chicago Tribune prefaced a series of articles on Islam, including one about how radical Muslims gained control of a large Chicago-area mosque, by reassuring readers that "Islam, the world's fastest-growing religion, preaches tolerance, non-violence and respect for human life."
But this week I interviewed Walid Shoebat, a former PLO terrorist who has become a Christian and has recently been speaking out against jihad ideology. He confirmed something I discussed in Onward Muslim Soldiers: that this talk of tolerance and non-violence is often cultivated by radical Muslims as part of a larger tactical strategy.
Local Muslims say outreach needed Polls find negative view of Islam In the Palestinian Authority, this strategy involved the co-opting of the embattled Palestinian Christian minority into the larger jihadist agenda. With Christians, Shoebat explains "we saw a need for unity." Palestinian Christians were happy to oblige. Most Palestinian Christians, says Shoebat, were "educated on Replacement Theology, in which God was done with Israel and Jews. They were in turn supportive of the Palestinian cause to liberate all Palestine."
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_200402/ai_n9367641

"Palestinians" burn Christian village (Published - 2005)
http://www.christiannewstoday.com/CWN_855.html

Sep 13, 2005 ... World silent after Muslim gang attacks ‘Palestinian' Christian village ... "And if it's not the members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, ...
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0905/pipes2005_09_13.php3

Houses torched as Muslim -Christian tensions flare. AKI, 6 Sept 2005
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Religion&loid=8.0.204471774&par=0

Honour killing feud exposes rift between Palestinian Muslims and Christians LARA SUKHTIAN (AP), 7 Sept 2005
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050905/w090583.html
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Security/6505.htm

Homes razed in mob fury at couple's 'affair'
Chris McGreal in Jerusalem, 5 September 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1562709,00.html

Muslims ransack Christian village
By Khaled Abu Toameh, 6 Sept 2005
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1125831262546

'Islamic mafia' accused of persecuting Holy Land Christians (09 2005)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/09/wmid09.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/09/09/ixworld.html

Denial of Religious Rights by the Palestinian Authority Not just Jews, but Christians have also been victimized by Islamic intolerance for 'infidel' holy sites.
http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/reports/Denial_of_Religious_Rights_by_the_Palestinian_Authority.asp

Dhimmi Watch: Fitzgerald: IslamoChristians and Bethlehem
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/010061.php

Islamization of Bethlehem - DRIVE THE INFIDELS OUT & TAKE THEIR LAND AND PROPERTY
http://bethg2.envy.nu/

The Pogrom on Christians
http://www.ourjerusalem.com/press/story/press20051017.html

Anti Christian
http://ww.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19453

Palestinians burn West Bank YMCA Follows Muslim warnings for Christian group
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51909

YMCA warned to vacate Hamas town
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50109

Persecuting the Holy Land's Christians ...
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20583

Expert: 'Christian groups in PA to disappear'
The ever-dwindling Christian communities living in Palestinian-run territories in the West Bank and Gaza are likely to dissipate completely within the next 15 years as a result of increasing Muslim persecution and maltreatment, an Israeli scholar said Monday.
Flames are seen at the entrance of an Anglican church hit by a firebomb in Nablus.
Slideshow: Pictures of the week "The systematic persecution of Christian Arabs living in Palestinian areas is being met with nearly total silence by the international community, human rights activists, the media and NGOs," said Justus Reid Weiner, an international human rights lawyer in an address at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, where he serves as a scholar in residence.
He cited Muslim harassment and persecution as the main cause of the "acute human rights crisis" facing Christian Arabs, and predicted that unless governments or institutions step in to remedy the situation - such as with job opportunities - there will be no more Christian communities living in the Palestinians territories within 15 years, with only a few Western Christians and top clergymen left in the area.
"Christian leaders are being forced to abandon their followers to the forces of radical Islam," Weiner said...
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1195546795874&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

_____________

2006

O, Muslim town of Bethlehem (muslim persecution of Bethlehem's Christians)
The situation has become so desperate that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, are to lead a joint delegation to Bethlehem this week to express their solidarity with the beleaguered Christian populace. The town, according to the Cardinal, is being "steadily strangled". The sense of a creeping Islamic fundamentalism is all around in Bethlehem. A mosque on one side of Manger Square stands directly opposite the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, while in the evening the muezzin's call to prayer clashes with the peal of church bells. Shops selling Santa Claus outfits and mother-of-pearl statuettes of the Virgin Mary have their shutters painted a sun-bleached green, the colour of Islam. And in the Al-Jacir Palace, Bethlehem's only luxury hotel, there is a baubled Christmas tree in reception and a card showing the direction of Mecca in the rooms.

George Rabie, a 22-year-old taxi driver from the Bethlehem suburb of Beit Jala, is proud of his Christianity, even though it puts him in daily danger. Two months ago, he was beaten up by a gang of Muslims who were visiting Bethlehem from nearby Hebron and who had spotted the crucifix hanging on his windscreen. "Every day, I experience discrimination," he says. " "It is a type of racism. We are a minority so we are an easier target. Many extremists from the villages are coming into Bethlehem." Jeriez Moussa Amaro, a 27-year-old aluminium craftsman from Beit Jala is another with first-hand experience of the appalling violence that Christians face. Five years ago, his two sisters, Rada, 24, and Dunya, 18, were shot dead by Muslim gunmen in their own home. Their crime was to be young, attractive Christian women who wore Western clothes and no veil. Rada had been sleeping with a Muslim man in the months before her death.

A terrorist organisation, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, issued a statement claiming responsibility, which said: "We wanted to clean the Palestinian house of prostitutes." Jeriez says: "A Christian man is weak compared to a Muslim man. "They have bigger, more powerful families and they know people high up in the Palestinian authority." The fear of attack has prompted many Christian families to emigrate, including Mr Canawati's sister, her husband and their three children who now live in New Jersey in America. "I want to leave but nobody will buy my business," Mr Canawati says. "I feel trapped. We are isolated." This isolation was heightened when, last year, Bethlehem found itself behind Israel's security wall, a 400-mile-long concrete barrier which separates Jewish and Palestinian areas and is designed to stop suicide bombers - in 2004, half the Israeli fatalities caused by such attacks were committed by extremists from Bethlehem. Last year, tourists trying to get to the town were forced to queue for hours as their papers were checked, while Bethlehem inhabitants going the other way must now apply for an infrequently granted permit to visit Jerusalem, barely ten minutes away by car. "It is like living in a prison," says Shadt Abu-Ayash, a 29-year-old Roman Catholic shopkeeper. The Roman Catholic Mayor of Bethlehem, Dr Victor Batarseh, says: "The political situation in Lebanon and the instability of politics in Palestine has affected tourism and pilgrimage. "Hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops are owned by mostly Christians so it affects them badly. "We have 65 per cent unemployment and about 2,000 bedrooms in hotels that are empty." Bethlehem's hotel owners estimate that tourist numbers have dropped sharply, from 91,276 each month for the millennium celebrations in 2000 to little more than 1,500 a month now.

During the past six years, 50 restaurants, 28 hotels and 240 souvenir shops have closed. Samir Qumsieh is general manager of Al-Mahed - Nativity - which is the only Christian television station in Bethlehem. He has had death threats and visits from armed men demanding three acres of his land - and he is now ready to leave. "As Christians, we have no future here," he says. "We are melting away. Next summer I will leave this country to go to the States. How can I continue? "I would rather have a beautiful dream in my head about what my home is like, not the nightmare of the reality."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=423126&in_page_id=1770

Muslim Palestinians attack Churches & News agency
Catholic Palestinians downplay Muslim attacks on Christian ... Catholic Online, CA - JERUSALEM (CNS) - Christian Palestinians tried to downplay the significance of Muslim attacks on seven Christian churches in the West Bank and Gaza in ...
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=21317

Palestinians attack more West Bank churches Reuters AlertNet
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1761770.htm

Masked Palestinians Attack News Agency All Headline News - Jerusalem, Israel (AHN) - Masked Palestinians Tuesday stormed the central Gaza offices of the official Palestinian Authority news agency, WAFA, destroying all ...
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7004911064

'Palestinian' Militants who in a statement, posted in the name of the Holy Jihad Vow to Target Non-Muslims or infidels to abduct & kill any non-Muslims who visit the 'Palestinian' territories , unless their demands are met.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/02/AR2006090200277.html

Related on 'Islamic apartheid'

The largest practitioner of apartheid on the planet is Islam, in terms of both religious apartheid and gender apartheid
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/1724

___

'Convert or Die' - 'Palestinians'

Two journalists Steve Centanni & Olaf Wiig kidnapped by Islamic Palestinians 'Holy Jihad Brigades' were forced to convert to Islam at gun point.

Clip

http://msunderestimated.com/2006/08/31/takin-it-to-the-gaza-streets-with-jennifer-griffin-video

Before the journalists' release, a new video was released, showing Wiig and Centanni dressed in beige Arab-style robes. The kidnappers claimed both men had converted to Islam. "We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint,"...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,210767,00.html

Steve Centanni, 60, an American correspondent, and his freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig ... "Then they forced us to convert to Islam at gunpoint," said Centanni. ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/aug/28/middleeastthemedia.tvnews

Officials: Hamas forcibly converted Christian woman to Islam. Gaza-based professor goes missing for weeks, indicates she is abducted, then surfaces a Muslim ...
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3434253,00.html

'Hamas forced professor to convert' | Middle East | Jerusalem Post Aug 5, 2007 ... Hamas officials strongly denied that they had forced the professor to convert to Islam and accused Fatah of spreading lies designed to ...
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1186066387589

INTERNATIONAL DIGEST: Gaza Christian kidnapped, forced to marry Muslim; ...
Posted on Aug 14, 2007 | by Mark Kelly NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--A Christian university professor in Gaza was kidnapped, forced to marry a Muslim professor at the same university and now her family is being told she wants no contact with them unless they convert to Islam.
Sana al-Sayegh, head of the Science and Technology Department at Gaza City's Palestine International University, disappeared June 24, according to Palestinian Authority officials and the woman's family. Five days later, she contacted her family to say she was being held against her will so she could be married to a Muslim man.
http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=26243

_________

2007

January 2007, Nazareth Muslims: 'Islam will dominate the world', March through town... 'meant to intimidate Christians'
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53574

Driving the Christians out
Source: The Jerusalem Post
Jan 25, 2007
A few decades ago Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, was a thriving town, a tourist magnet and a majority Christian town.
Today barely 15 percent of the population is Christian, and according to one of them, "every day we hear of another Christian family that has immigrated to the US, Canada or Latin America."
"I believe," said another, "that 15 years from now there will be no Christians left in Bethlehem. Then you will need a torch to find a Christian here."
The disappearance of Bethlehem's Christian Arabs is not a natural phenomenon; it is the consequence of a concerted effort to bring that potent sympbol of Christendom into submission to Islam.
Resorting to violence, terrorism, brazen land-theft and massive abuse of power, Muslim Arab civilians and Muslim members of the Palestinian Authority are effectively and purposefully driving the Christians away.
No-one cares about the plight of Bethlehem's Christians. And knowing the consequences of themselves publicising the abuse they face, most keep quiet, make their plans, and slip quietly away.
Soon only Muslims will benefit from whatever interest the Christian world retains in Bethlehem.
http://www.jnewswire.com/articles/print/1601 'Christians must accept Islamic rule' - Israel News, Ynetnews
Ynet News: Militant leader in Gaza says missionaries will be 'dealt with harshly,' demands women wear headscarfs. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3414753,00.html

israelinsider: Briefs: Gaza Jihadis justify attack on school ...
Gaza Jihadis justify attack on school, blaming UN "Christian missionaries".
Published: May 9, 2007 ...
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Briefs/11334.htm

Gaza's Christian Arabs Living in Fear
http://israelforum.com/board/showthread.php?t=11080

Bombs hit Christian bookstore, two Internet cafes in Gaza City ...Bombs hit Christian bookstore, two Internet cafes in Gaza City-News and commentary ... 11:17 Senior Hamas official: Suicide bombers ruined past peace bids ...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/848535.html

Reuters AlertNet - Bombs hit Christian bookshop, Internet cafe in GazaGAZA, April 15 (Reuters) - Bombs damaged a Christian bookstore and an Internet ... Elsewhere in Gaza City, a bomb destroyed an Internet cafe, police said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15587768.htm

Christians warned: Accept Islamic lawAsked if Hamas is seeking to impose hard-line Islamic law on the Palestinians, al-Zahar responded, ... Christian bookstore bombed by terrorists ...
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56241

Gaza's Christians under the Islamic gun Jun 19, 2007 ... There are not very many of them, but Gaza's Christians are already being singled out for special treatment in the newly-created "Hamastan" ...
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/1978

Washington Times - Hamas control has Gaza's Christians on edge Jun 27, 2007 ... THE WASHINGTON TIMES TEL AVIV - The future of a tiny Christian community in the Gaza Strip is in doubt after the takeover of Gaza by the ...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/jun/27/hamas-control-has-gazas-christians-on-edge/

Palestinian Christian activist stabbed to death in Gaza - Haaretz ...Oct 10, 2007 ... A Palestinian Christian activist who had received repeated death threats was ... The Interior Ministry run by Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas ...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/910184.html

Gaza Christians warned to submit to Islam Jun 19, 2007 .... Gaza-based Muslim groups affiliated with Hamas and possibly Al Qaeda have warned local Christians ...
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=13162

Palestinian Christians fear... Yet Palestinian Christians are also "afraid that Palestine might become an Islamic state", this according to the nuns of Bethlehem's Baby Caritas Hospital, ...
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=2063

Reuters lies about why Christians are fleeing PA areas Reuters on Monday reported matter-of-factly that Israeli oppression is fueling a Christian exodus from Palestinian Authority-controlled areas, ...
http://www.jnewswire.com/articles/print/1774

CAMERA: Reuters fails to root out facts on Palestinian Christians Mar 12, 2007 ... But it's another matter entirely to read that Palestinian Christians are also free from persecution at the hands of their Muslim neighbors, ...
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=36&x_article=1298

Palestinians burn West Bank YMCA Follows Muslim warnings for Christian group to leave Hamas-controlled town or see violence ...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51909

Palestinians torch Qalqilya YMCA - Israel News, Palestinians torch Qalqilya YMCA. Prior to attack, Christian groups warned to vacate Hamas-controlled West Bank town; identities of attackers known to local ...
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3302162,00.html

C4RPME.org: Christian Monastery Attacked in Gaza During the recent fighting in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah, the Christian community in Gaza was also targeted. The Palestinian paper Al-Ayyam reported that ...
http://c4rpme.org/bin/articles.cgi?Cat=christians&Subcat=cpa&ID=631

Gaza Christians Wary After Hamas Takeover - 06/19/2007 Hamas is not opposed to Christian worship, said Massad. Christians want to live their faith, he said, but he admitted that they don't have "full freedom" in ...
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200706/INT20070619b.html

Digg - Hamas Destroys Christian School and Church Now that there are no Jews in Gaza and Hamas is in control, they're beginning the process of driving out the remaining Christians: Gaza's Christians fear ...
http://digg.com/world_news/Hamas_Destroys_Christian_School_and_Church

Gaza Christians Living Under Growing Islamic Threat
CNSNews.com, VA - Aug 16, 2007 Hamas maintains that al-Sayegh's conversion was a matter of personal choice and that it is vigorously protecting the rights of Gaza's Christians, ...
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200708/INT20070816c.html

Hamas control has Gaza's Christians on edge - The Washington ...The Washington Times Foreign: Hamas control has Gaza's Christians on edge.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070627/FOREIGN/106270072/1001?

‘Hamas forced professor to convert' | Some 3000 Christians live in the Gaza Strip. Following the Hamas takeover of the Strip, many of them have expressed their desire to leave. ...
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1186066387589

Officials: Hamas forcibly converted Christian woman to Islam ...Ynet News, Middle East News: Gaza-based professor goes missing for weeks, indicates she is abducted, then surfaces a Muslim.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3434253,00.html

Hamas pressing Gaza Christians to become MuslimsThe Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip are pressuring local Christians to either become Muslims or leave the area, according to Palestinian officials who spoke ...
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=13738?

Eye On The World: Hamas demands Christians adopt Islam or leave
http://eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com/2007/08/hamas-demands-christians-adopt-islam-or.html

Christian Persecution Blog: Hamas Turns on Gaza Christians, This morning I was reading in Israel Today a brief story about how Hamas has turned on Gaza Christians over the weekend. Here's the story in its entirety ...
http://www.persecutionblog.com/2007/06/hamas_turns_on_.html

Leaders of Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror groups in Bethlehem also told WND they were not aware of any al-Qaida elements in Bethlehem.
Local Christian leaders speaking to WND said they cannot confirm any al-Qaida groups present in Bethlehem, but stated they are concerned by what they said was growing radicalization and militancy among Palestinian groups who reportedly have been targeting Christians in the city...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55718

Christian activist slain in Hamas controlled Gaza Oct 8, 2007 ... The body of Rami Khader Ayyad, a prominent Palestinian Christian activist, ... Ayyad had been threatened by Islamic extremists in the past. ...
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Terror+Groups/Christian+activist+slain+in+Hamas+controlled+Gaza+8-Oct-2007.htm

Christian Bookstore Owner Was Tortured Before His Death - October ...Oct 11, 2007 ... The body of Rami Ayyad, director of Gaza's only Christian bookstore, ... Ayyad had told relatives he was receiving death threats from Islamists.
http://www.nysun.com/foreign/christian-bookstore-owner-was-tortured-before-his/64354/

_________

2008

Pressure Intensifies for Gaza Christians - Christian World News ...Aug 1, 2008 ... Islamic extremists are continuing efforts to eradicate Christians and their institutions.
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/420931.aspx

Gaza Muslims continue ethnic-cleansing effort
By Stan Goodenough
February 17, 2008
Muslims attacked the library of the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) in Gaza Friday in the latest move to drive Christians and Christianity out of the Islamist-controlled Strip.
According to a report in The Jerusalem Post Sunday, gunmen - some masked, others not - "stormed" the library, kidnapped two security guards, looted electronic equipment and stole a vehicle, then detonated a number of bombs inside the building, totally destroying the book collection.
Intent on making the area Islamically "pure," Muslim Arabs have looked for "reasons" to "justify" their targeting of the tiny Christian community - around 3000 strong - that lives in the midst of Gaza's 1.4 million Muslims.
The persecution has increased since Hamas violently took control of Gaza a year ago.
On October 6 last year, Muslims abducted Rami Ayyad, the manager of Gaza's only Christian bookstore that had been bombed by masked Muslims six months earlier.
Ayyad, 31, was the father of two small children; his wife was pregnant with their third. His shot and repeatedly stabbed body was found a day after he disappeared.
For Gaza's Muslims, ridding themselves of any active Christian presence would be cherry on top after successfully forcing Israel to remove every single Jew from Gaza in 2005.
"Palestinian" crowds have often been heard to chant: "First we'll fight on Saturday and then on Sunday" - meaning, after they rid themselves of Jews they will rid themselves of Christians.
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2332

ARAB RACISM AGAISNT JEWS BY ISRAELI-ARABS

Maria from New York, NY — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:28:28 EDT

ARAB RACISM AGAINST JEWS BY ISRAELI ARABS

Israeli racist Arabs, leaders or individuals, who target to murder or hurt Jews for the sole "reason" of belonging to Jewish roots/origin.