L.E. Ikenga
Had Americans been able to stop obsessing over the color of Barack Obama's skin and instead paid more attention to his cultural identity, maybe he would not be in the White House today. The key to understanding him lies with his identification with his father, and his adoption of a cultural and political mindset rooted in postcolonial Africa.
Like many educated intellectuals in postcolonial Africa, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was enraged at the transformation of his native land by its colonial conqueror. But instead of embracing the traditional values of his own tribal cultural past, he embraced an imported Western ideology, Marxism. I call such frustrated and angry modern Africans who embrace various foreign "isms", instead of looking homeward for repair of societies that are broken, African Colonials. They are Africans who serve foreign ideas. The tropes of America's racial history as a way of understanding all things black are useless in understanding the man who got his dreams from his father, a Kenyan exemplar of the African Colonial.
Before I continue, I need to say this: I am a first generation born West African-American woman whose parents emigrated to the U.S. in the 1970's from the country now called Nigeria. I travel to Nigeria frequently. I see myself as both a proud American and as a proud Igbo (the tribe that we come from -- also sometimes spelled Ibo). Politically, I have always been conservative (though it took this past election for me to commit to this once and for all!); my conservative values come from my Igbo heritage and my place of birth. Of course, none of this qualifies me to say what I am about to -- but at the same time it does.
My friends, despite what CNN and the rest are telling you, Barack Obama is nothing more than an old school African Colonial who is on his way to turning this country into one of the developing nations that you learn about on the National Geographic Channel. Many conservative (East, West, South, North) African-Americans like myself -- those of us who know our history -- have seen this movie before. Here are two main reasons why many Americans allowed Obama to slip through the cracks despite all of his glaring inconsistencies:
First, Obama has been living on American soil for most of his adult life. Therefore, he has been able to masquerade as one who understands and believes in American democratic ideals. But he does not. Barack Obama is intrinsically undemocratic and as his presidency plays out, this will become more obvious. Second, and most importantly, too many Americans know very little about Africa. The one-size-fits-all understanding that many Americans (both black and white) continue to have of Africa might end up bringing dire consequences for this country.
Contrary to the way it continues to be portrayed in mainstream Western culture, Africa is not a continent that can be solely defined by AIDS, ethnic rivalries, poverty and safaris. Africa, like any other continent, has an immense history defined by much diversity and complexity. Africa's long-standing relationship with Europe speaks especially to some of these complexities -- particularly the relationship that has existed between the two continents over the past two centuries. Europe's complete colonization of Africa during the nineteenth century, also known as the Scramble for Africa, produced many unfortunate consequences, the African colonial being one of them.
The African colonial (AC) is a person who by means of their birth or lineage has a direct connection with Africa. However, unlike Africans like me, their worldviews have been largely shaped not by the indigenous beliefs of a specific African tribe but by the ideals of the European imperialism that overwhelmed and dominated Africa during the colonial period. AC's have no real regard for their specific African traditions or histories. AC's use aspects of their African culture as one would use pieces of costume jewelry: things of little or no value that can be thoughtlessly discarded when they become a negative distraction, or used on a whim to decorate oneself in order to seem exotic. (Hint: Obama's Muslim heritage).
On the other hand, AC's strive to be the best at the culture that they inherited from Europe. Throughout the West, they are tops in their professions as lawyers, doctors, engineers, Ivy League professors and business moguls; this is all well and good. It's when they decide to engage us as politicians that things become messy and convoluted.
The African colonial politician (ACP) feigns repulsion towards the hegemonic paradigms of Western civilization. But at the same time, he is completely enamored of the trappings of its aristocracy or elite culture. The ACP blames and caricatures whitey to no end for all that has gone wrong in the world. He convinces the masses that various forms of African socialism are the best way for redressing the problems that European colonialism motivated in Africa. However, as opposed to really being a hard-core African Leftist who actually believes in something, the ACP uses socialist themes as a way to disguise his true ambitions: a complete power grab whereby the "will of the people" becomes completely irrelevant.
Barack Obama is all of the above. The only difference is that he is here playing (colonial) African politics as usual.
In his 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father -- an eloquent piece of political propaganda -- Obama styles himself as a misunderstood intellectual who is deeply affected by the sufferings of black people, especially in America and Africa. In the book, Obama clearly sees himself as an African, not as a black American. And to prove this, he goes on a quest to understand his Kenyan roots. He is extremely thoughtful of his deceased father's legacy; this provides the main clue for understanding Barack Obama.
Barack Obama Sr. was an African colonial to the core; in his case, the apple did not fall far from the tree. All of the telltale signs of Obama's African colonialist attitudes are on full display in the book -- from his feigned antipathy towards Europeans to his view of African tribal associations as distracting elements that get in the way of "progress". (On p. 308 of Dreams From My Father, Obama says that African tribes should be viewed as an "ancient loyalties".)
Like imperialists of Old World Europe, the ACP sees their constituents not as free thinking individuals who best know how to go about achieving and creating their own means for success. Instead, the ACP sees his constituents as a flock of ignorant sheep that need to be led -- oftentimes to their own slaughter.
Like the European imperialist who spawned him, the ACP is a destroyer of all forms of democracy.
Here are a few examples of what the British did in order to create (in 1914) what is now called Nigeria and what Obama is doing to you:
Convince the people that "clinging" to any aspect of their cultural (tribal) identity or history is bad and regresses the process of "unity". British Imperialists deeply feared people who were loyal to anything other than the state. "Tribalism" made the imperialists have to work harder to get people to just fall in line. Imperialists pitted tribes against each other in order to create chaos that they then blamed on ethnic rivalry. Today many "educated" Nigerians, having believed that their traditions were irrelevant, remain completely ignorant of their ancestry and the history of their own tribes.
Confiscate the wealth and resources of the area that you govern by any means necessary in order to redistribute wealth. The British used this tactic to present themselves as empathetic and benevolent leaders who wanted everyone to have a "fair shake". Imperialists are not interested in equality for all. They are interested in controlling all.
Convince the masses that your upper-crust university education naturally puts you on an intellectual plane from which to understand everything even when you understand nothing. Imperialists were able to convince the people that their elite university educations allowed them to understand what Africa needed. Many of today's Nigerians-having followed that lead-hold all sorts of degrees and certificates-but what good are they if you can't find a job?
Lie to the people and tell them that progress is being made even though things are clearly becoming worse. One thing that the British forgot to mention to their Nigerian constituents was that one day, the resources that were being used to engineer "progress" (which the British had confiscated from the Africans to begin with!) would eventually run out. After WWII, Western Europe could no longer afford to hold on to their African colonies. So all of the counterfeit countries that the Europeans created were then left high-and-dry to fend for themselves. This was the main reason behind the African independence movements of the1950 and 60's. What will a post-Obama America look like?
Use every available media outlet to perpetuate the belief that you and your followers are the enlightened ones-and that those who refuse to support you are just barbaric, uncivilized, ignorant curmudgeons. This speaks for itself.
America, don't be fooled. The Igbos were once made up of a confederacy of clans that ascribed to various forms of democratic government. They took their eyes off the ball and before they knew it, the British were upon them. Also, understand this: the African colonial who is given too much political power can only become one thing: a despot.
L.E. Ikenga can be reached at leikenga@gmail.com.
Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/obama_the_african_colonial.html at June 27, 2009 - 10:45:43 AM EDT
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Obama admits dialogue with Iran delayed indefinitely, derides Ahmadinejad
Debka
In another toughening of tone, US president Barack Obama admitted for the first time that "direct dialogue or diplomacy with Iran" would be "affected by the events of the last several weeks." After White House talks with German chancellor Angela Merkel, Friday, June 26, he said "the talks "compered by the P5-plus-1 group on Iran's nuclear program would likely continue." he said, because the world needs to recognize that the prospect of Iran with nuclear weapons was a "big problem."
DEBKAfile notes that Obama while praising opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, poured scorn on Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad s demand for an apology and accusations that the US president had meddled in Iran's internal affairs.
He stressed the US had gone out of its way not to interfere with the election process in Iran. "I would suggest that Mr. Ahmadinejad think carefully about the obligations he owes to his own people. And he might want to consider looking at the families of those who've been beaten or shot or detained…That's where I think he and others need to answer their questions."
In Tehran, a senior cleric called for the execution of dissidents for "declaring war on Allah."
Obama said Mousavi had "captured the imagination or spirit" of those within Iran who are "interested in opening up." He has become a representative of the people who've been demonstrating in the strees of Tehran with "extraordinary bravery."
In another toughening of tone, US president Barack Obama admitted for the first time that "direct dialogue or diplomacy with Iran" would be "affected by the events of the last several weeks." After White House talks with German chancellor Angela Merkel, Friday, June 26, he said "the talks "compered by the P5-plus-1 group on Iran's nuclear program would likely continue." he said, because the world needs to recognize that the prospect of Iran with nuclear weapons was a "big problem."
DEBKAfile notes that Obama while praising opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, poured scorn on Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad s demand for an apology and accusations that the US president had meddled in Iran's internal affairs.
He stressed the US had gone out of its way not to interfere with the election process in Iran. "I would suggest that Mr. Ahmadinejad think carefully about the obligations he owes to his own people. And he might want to consider looking at the families of those who've been beaten or shot or detained…That's where I think he and others need to answer their questions."
In Tehran, a senior cleric called for the execution of dissidents for "declaring war on Allah."
Obama said Mousavi had "captured the imagination or spirit" of those within Iran who are "interested in opening up." He has become a representative of the people who've been demonstrating in the strees of Tehran with "extraordinary bravery."
Friday, June 26, 2009
The Importance of Gilad Shalit
Jonathan Tobin - 06.25.2009 - 1:45 PM
Three years ago today, Hamas terrorists crossed the international border between Gaza and Israel to attack an Israeli army post. They killed two Israelis and kidnapped Corporal Gilad Shalit. He remains their prisoner to this day, held somewhere inside the Gaza territory ruled by the Hamas movement. Unlike Hamas killers held by Israel, Shalit has received no Red Cross visits. He is held incommunicado while his kidnappers hold off-and-on indirect negotiations to ransom him by forcing Israel to release hundreds or more terrorists including those convicted of perpetrating massacres onIsraeli civilians.
Some will say that Shalit was a solider in a war against Hamas and therefore, unlike a civilian, had to take his chances. If his fate is hard, we are told, that’s too bad but the Palestinians in Israeli hands aren’t at a beach resort either. And, as we are constantly reminded by celebrity tourists like Jimmy Carter as well as by the press, Palestinian civilians in Gaza are living in terrible conditions.
But it is curious that Shalit’s captivity is dismissed by most of the same people who are quick to attack Israel for behaving as if it is fighting a war against the Hamas rulers of Gaza. If Shalit’s fate is merely a caprice of war rather than a human rights issue, then how can anyone fault Israel for treating those who attacked its sovereign territory — and continue to do so by every means they can — as an enemy in a state of war against the Jewish state? How can it be okay for Hamas to hold an Israeli soldier hostage but not okay for Israel to attack Hamas terror bases and infrastructure as it did last December and January? Why is it an imperative for Israel to lift the limited blockade on Gaza (which attempts to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its military infrastructure while letting in food and medicine) so long as it is illegally holding an Israeli prisoner? What does it say about world opinion that it condemns Israel for cruelty toward the Palestinians while Iran’s ally Hamas is given impunity to commit terror and even to profit from kidnapping.
The anniversary of Shalit’s captivity also comes at a time when the Obama administration is attempting to restart peace talks in which Israel is being asked to make concessions on security and territory as a precondition of discussing peace. This insistence on pressuring Israel takes no account of the realities of Palestinian politics and society that render the entire project a fool’s errand. Hamas remains in power in Gaza, and might well be in charge of the West Bank too if Palestinians there were offered a free choice. Those in Washington and elsewhere who blithely talk of the need for Israel to freeze settlements or to lift roadblocks ignore the nature of Hamas — a military/political entity that continues to support the eradication of Israel and the massacre of its Jewish population. They forget that a total withdrawal of Israeli settlements and soldiers from Gaza four years ago didn’t bring peace or even an attempt by the Palestinians to build their economy. Instead it brought Hamas into power, first by elections and then by an armed coup, and the conversion of the strip into a vast terror base sheltered amid a civilian population.
While we must pray that Gilad Shalit is either ransomed or rescued soon, the lack of interest in his fate or the nature of his kidnappers on the part of the same people who are so quick to lecture Israel is a reminder of the absurd double standard by which that country is judged .
»Back to Contentions
.
Three years ago today, Hamas terrorists crossed the international border between Gaza and Israel to attack an Israeli army post. They killed two Israelis and kidnapped Corporal Gilad Shalit. He remains their prisoner to this day, held somewhere inside the Gaza territory ruled by the Hamas movement. Unlike Hamas killers held by Israel, Shalit has received no Red Cross visits. He is held incommunicado while his kidnappers hold off-and-on indirect negotiations to ransom him by forcing Israel to release hundreds or more terrorists including those convicted of perpetrating massacres onIsraeli civilians.
Some will say that Shalit was a solider in a war against Hamas and therefore, unlike a civilian, had to take his chances. If his fate is hard, we are told, that’s too bad but the Palestinians in Israeli hands aren’t at a beach resort either. And, as we are constantly reminded by celebrity tourists like Jimmy Carter as well as by the press, Palestinian civilians in Gaza are living in terrible conditions.
But it is curious that Shalit’s captivity is dismissed by most of the same people who are quick to attack Israel for behaving as if it is fighting a war against the Hamas rulers of Gaza. If Shalit’s fate is merely a caprice of war rather than a human rights issue, then how can anyone fault Israel for treating those who attacked its sovereign territory — and continue to do so by every means they can — as an enemy in a state of war against the Jewish state? How can it be okay for Hamas to hold an Israeli soldier hostage but not okay for Israel to attack Hamas terror bases and infrastructure as it did last December and January? Why is it an imperative for Israel to lift the limited blockade on Gaza (which attempts to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its military infrastructure while letting in food and medicine) so long as it is illegally holding an Israeli prisoner? What does it say about world opinion that it condemns Israel for cruelty toward the Palestinians while Iran’s ally Hamas is given impunity to commit terror and even to profit from kidnapping.
The anniversary of Shalit’s captivity also comes at a time when the Obama administration is attempting to restart peace talks in which Israel is being asked to make concessions on security and territory as a precondition of discussing peace. This insistence on pressuring Israel takes no account of the realities of Palestinian politics and society that render the entire project a fool’s errand. Hamas remains in power in Gaza, and might well be in charge of the West Bank too if Palestinians there were offered a free choice. Those in Washington and elsewhere who blithely talk of the need for Israel to freeze settlements or to lift roadblocks ignore the nature of Hamas — a military/political entity that continues to support the eradication of Israel and the massacre of its Jewish population. They forget that a total withdrawal of Israeli settlements and soldiers from Gaza four years ago didn’t bring peace or even an attempt by the Palestinians to build their economy. Instead it brought Hamas into power, first by elections and then by an armed coup, and the conversion of the strip into a vast terror base sheltered amid a civilian population.
While we must pray that Gilad Shalit is either ransomed or rescued soon, the lack of interest in his fate or the nature of his kidnappers on the part of the same people who are so quick to lecture Israel is a reminder of the absurd double standard by which that country is judged .
»Back to Contentions
.
World First: ‘Sun Valley’ Launches Novel Solar Plant
Rochel Sylvetsky
A7News
It was an Israel lover’s dream come true: A new way of generating renewable energy using concentrated solar radiation was created at the Weizmann Institute, developed in cooperation with the AORA solar technology company located in the development town of Yavne, brought to fruition by Torah observant investors from abroad and launched in Kibbutz Samar 20 kilometers (13 miles) north of Eilat.
Overseas guests, including dignitaries and businessmen from Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Chile and Australia, mingled with the smiling Israelis, including AORA chief executive officer Chaim Fried’s family from Har Bracha, government representatives and kibbutz members at the event on Wednesday.
Yehoshua Fried, founder of construction-management firm EDIG, of which AORA is a member, began his speech with the traditional blessing over something new and continued with a quote from the week’s Torah portion. He thanked American investor Meir Reiss and Canadian Director of Corporation and Consultant to Management, Zev Rosenzweig, who believed in his dream and made it into reality. Fried recalled how he pioneered in the field 15 years ago along with Chief Technology Officer Dr. Pinchas Doron, but had to abandon his plans until the need for clean, renewable solar power was recognized.
Rosenzweig spoke of the special feeling he and Reiss have, as committed Jews, in helping the Jewish State utilize its brain power, strengthening its economy, providing local jobs and benefiting the world in general. Udi Gat, Eilot Regional Council Chairman, expressed the hope that his region would become the “Sun Valley” of the clean energy world as California’s “Silicon Valley” is to the cyberworld.
The new environmental friendly power station incorporates innovations that make it particularly advantageous in comparison to other technologies. It does not use water as do steam operated turbines, it can be constructed in several months rather than the years it takes to build other solar power stations, and it can supply energy 24 hours a day by using fuel to generate electricity when there is no sunlight.
It is the only modular system in existence, perhaps its greatest advantage, allowing the purchase and operation of as many 100-kilowatt modules as needed. A modular system can continue operation even if one or several modules need repair and the size and relative price enable it to be practical at a local level as well as a large area. Each module can provide for 50-70 households, making it attractive for developing countries with outlying villages. Over 70 percent of the materials are Israeli products, providing income for local firms.
The system consists of 30 tracking mirrors (heliostats) situated on a half-acre of land that track the sun and redirect its rays towards the top of a 30-meter high tower housing a solar receiver and gas turbine. The first tower, designed by the pioneering Israeli architect Chaim Dotan to resemble a yellow flower, is placed so that it can be seen with its top glowing in the sun when traveling on the road to Eilat.
The patented special solar receiver in the tower uses the sun’s energy to heat air to 1000 degrees Celsius and directs this energy into the turbine which converts it into electric power. This can be attached to the national grid and the Minister of National Infrastructures, Binyamin Ben Eliezer, has already signed the license allowing that.
Contracts for “concentrated solar power stations” were signed with Australian and Spanish businessmen at the launching itself. As for the Israeli consumer, it remains only for the Israeli government to decide what to charge for the cheaper, cleaner electricity generated by our home grown “Power Flower”.
A7News
It was an Israel lover’s dream come true: A new way of generating renewable energy using concentrated solar radiation was created at the Weizmann Institute, developed in cooperation with the AORA solar technology company located in the development town of Yavne, brought to fruition by Torah observant investors from abroad and launched in Kibbutz Samar 20 kilometers (13 miles) north of Eilat.
Overseas guests, including dignitaries and businessmen from Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Chile and Australia, mingled with the smiling Israelis, including AORA chief executive officer Chaim Fried’s family from Har Bracha, government representatives and kibbutz members at the event on Wednesday.
Yehoshua Fried, founder of construction-management firm EDIG, of which AORA is a member, began his speech with the traditional blessing over something new and continued with a quote from the week’s Torah portion. He thanked American investor Meir Reiss and Canadian Director of Corporation and Consultant to Management, Zev Rosenzweig, who believed in his dream and made it into reality. Fried recalled how he pioneered in the field 15 years ago along with Chief Technology Officer Dr. Pinchas Doron, but had to abandon his plans until the need for clean, renewable solar power was recognized.
Rosenzweig spoke of the special feeling he and Reiss have, as committed Jews, in helping the Jewish State utilize its brain power, strengthening its economy, providing local jobs and benefiting the world in general. Udi Gat, Eilot Regional Council Chairman, expressed the hope that his region would become the “Sun Valley” of the clean energy world as California’s “Silicon Valley” is to the cyberworld.
The new environmental friendly power station incorporates innovations that make it particularly advantageous in comparison to other technologies. It does not use water as do steam operated turbines, it can be constructed in several months rather than the years it takes to build other solar power stations, and it can supply energy 24 hours a day by using fuel to generate electricity when there is no sunlight.
It is the only modular system in existence, perhaps its greatest advantage, allowing the purchase and operation of as many 100-kilowatt modules as needed. A modular system can continue operation even if one or several modules need repair and the size and relative price enable it to be practical at a local level as well as a large area. Each module can provide for 50-70 households, making it attractive for developing countries with outlying villages. Over 70 percent of the materials are Israeli products, providing income for local firms.
The system consists of 30 tracking mirrors (heliostats) situated on a half-acre of land that track the sun and redirect its rays towards the top of a 30-meter high tower housing a solar receiver and gas turbine. The first tower, designed by the pioneering Israeli architect Chaim Dotan to resemble a yellow flower, is placed so that it can be seen with its top glowing in the sun when traveling on the road to Eilat.
The patented special solar receiver in the tower uses the sun’s energy to heat air to 1000 degrees Celsius and directs this energy into the turbine which converts it into electric power. This can be attached to the national grid and the Minister of National Infrastructures, Binyamin Ben Eliezer, has already signed the license allowing that.
Contracts for “concentrated solar power stations” were signed with Australian and Spanish businessmen at the launching itself. As for the Israeli consumer, it remains only for the Israeli government to decide what to charge for the cheaper, cleaner electricity generated by our home grown “Power Flower”.
Israelis, U.S. Jews Differ Dramatically On Obama
Caroline B. Glick
Date: Wednesday, June 24 2009
Have American Jews abandoned Israel in favor of President Obama? This is a central question in the minds of Israelis today.
In a poll of Israeli Jews conducted in mid-June by the Jerusalem Post, a mere 6 percent of respondents said they view Obama as pro-Israel. In stark contrast, a Gallup tracking poll in early May showed that 79 percent of American Jews support the president.
These numbers seem to tell us that U.S. Jews have indeed parted company with the Jewish state.
No American president has ever been viewed as similarly ill disposed toward Israel by Israelis. With only 6 percent seeing the administration as friendly, it is apparent that distrust of Obama is not a partisan issue in Israel. It spans the spectrum from far left to right, from ultra-Orthodox to ultra-secular. But with his 79-percent approval rating among U.S. Jews, it is clear the American Jewish community is quite sympathetically inclined toward Obama.
Appearances of course can be deceptive. And it is worth taking a closer look at the numbers to understand what they tell us about American Jewish sentiments regarding Obama and Israel. First, however, we should consider what it is about Obama that makes nearly all Israeli Jews view him as an adversary.
The Jerusalem Post poll showed a massive divergence between Israeli Jews and Obama on the issue of Jewish building beyond the 1949 armistice line. The Obama administration has refused to budge in its hard-line demand that Israel end all Jewish building in north, south, and east Jerusalem as well as in Judea and Samaria.
For its part, the Netanyahu government has refused to bow to this demand. Seventy percent of Israeli Jews support the Netanyahu government's handling of the issue with the Obama administration and 69 percent oppose a freeze on Jewish building.
Beyond Obama's agitation on the issue of Jewish construction, Israelis are dismayed by what they perceive as the generally hostile approach he has adopted in dealing with the Jewish state. This approach was nowhere more in evidence than in his speech to the Islamic world in Cairo on June 4.
It wasn't just Obama's comparison of Palestinian terrorism to the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa, the American civil rights movement and antebellum slave rebellions that set people off. There was also Obama's inference that Israel owes its legitimacy to the Holocaust.
It is that claim - Obama repeated it during his visit to Buchenwald - which forms the basis of the Islamic narrative against Israel. It argues that Jews are not indigenous to the Middle East, and that the only thing keeping Israel in place is European guilt about Auschwitz. Not only do Israelis of all political stripes reject this as factually false, they recognize it is inherently anti-Semitic because it ignores and negates 3,500 years of Jewish history in the land of Israel.
With Israeli distrust of Obama so apparent, and so easily explained, two questions arise: How has Obama managed to maintain American Jewish support despite his unprecedented unpopularity in Israel? And what is the likelihood that when push comes to shove, American Jews will stand with Israel against the president they so admire?
Obama's great success in maintaining support among American Jews owes much to the fact that most American Jews do not pick up the same messages from Obama's statements as do Israeli Jews. Whereas Israeli Jews recognize that it is morally obscene, strategically suicidal and historically inaccurate to suggest that Israel has no rights to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and that Jews have no right to live there, American Jews do not intuitively understand this to be the case. Consequently, while Israeli Jews recognize Obama's calls for a total freeze in Jewish construction in these areas as inherently hostile, most American Jews do not.
Beyond this, for the past 15 years, Holocaust education - more so than Zionist education or Jewish religious education - has become the hallmark of American Jewish identity. As a consequence, American Jews may not see anything objectionable in Obama's inference that Israel owes its existence to the Holocaust.
If the divergence in U.S. Jewish and Israeli attitudes toward Obama is simply a consequence of a lack of American Jewish awareness of the significance of Obama's positions and policies for Israel, then the disparity in views can be easily remedied by a sustained issues awareness campaign by Israel and by American Jewish organizations. For many of Israel's core American Jewish supporters, such a campaign would no doubt go a long way in energizing them to challenge the administration on its positions vis-à-vis Israel.
But there are other factors at work. According to the American Jewish Committee's 2008 survey of American Jews, some 67 percent of American Jews feel close to Israel. These numbers, while high, are not significantly higher than similar support levels among the general U.S. population. (A survey of general American sentiment toward Israel conducted this month by the Israel Project shows that support for Israel has dropped by 20 percent in the past nine months - from 69 to 49 percent. Presumably, Jewish American support for Israel has also experienced a drop.)
More significantly, the AJC survey showed that in the lead-up to the 2008 presidential elections, only three percent of American Jews said a candidate's position on Israel was the most important issue for them. Indeed, according to survey after survey of American Jewish opinion over the past decade, U.S. Jewish support for Israel, while widespread, is not particularly deep. This sentiment lends to the conclusion that American Jews will not abandon or temper their support for Obama simply because he is perceived as being hostile to Israel.
The picture, then, is a mixed bag. Support for Israel against Obama will likely rise as a consequence of a sustained educational campaign among American Jews about the issues in dispute and their importance for Israel's security and national well-being. But even in that event, it is unclear how dramatic the shift would be. Given the shallowness of U.S. Jewish support for Israel, no doubt many American Jews will not care enough to reassess their positions on either Israel or Obama.
The one bit of encouraging news in all this is the persistence of support for Israel relative to Palestinians among rank and file Americans. Palestinians are supported by a mere five percent of Americans.
No doubt it is this disparity that is motivating leading Democratic politicians - most recently Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic Senator Robert Menendez from New Jersey - to publicly distance themselves from the administration's Mideast policies.
If U.S. Jewish leaders and pro-Israel activists can educate just a fraction of the American Jewish community, and motivate them to stand with Israel in a significant way against administration pressure, this will likely motivate still more lawmakers and politicians from both parties to maintain support for Israel against the administration. Certainly it will help convince Israelis we haven't been abandoned by American Jewry. And that in itself would be no mean achievement.
Caroline Glick is senior contributing editor at The Jerusalem Post. Her Jewish Press-exclusive column appears the last week of each month. Her book "The Shackled Warrior: Israel and the Global Jihad," is available at Amazon.com.
Date: Wednesday, June 24 2009
Have American Jews abandoned Israel in favor of President Obama? This is a central question in the minds of Israelis today.
In a poll of Israeli Jews conducted in mid-June by the Jerusalem Post, a mere 6 percent of respondents said they view Obama as pro-Israel. In stark contrast, a Gallup tracking poll in early May showed that 79 percent of American Jews support the president.
These numbers seem to tell us that U.S. Jews have indeed parted company with the Jewish state.
No American president has ever been viewed as similarly ill disposed toward Israel by Israelis. With only 6 percent seeing the administration as friendly, it is apparent that distrust of Obama is not a partisan issue in Israel. It spans the spectrum from far left to right, from ultra-Orthodox to ultra-secular. But with his 79-percent approval rating among U.S. Jews, it is clear the American Jewish community is quite sympathetically inclined toward Obama.
Appearances of course can be deceptive. And it is worth taking a closer look at the numbers to understand what they tell us about American Jewish sentiments regarding Obama and Israel. First, however, we should consider what it is about Obama that makes nearly all Israeli Jews view him as an adversary.
The Jerusalem Post poll showed a massive divergence between Israeli Jews and Obama on the issue of Jewish building beyond the 1949 armistice line. The Obama administration has refused to budge in its hard-line demand that Israel end all Jewish building in north, south, and east Jerusalem as well as in Judea and Samaria.
For its part, the Netanyahu government has refused to bow to this demand. Seventy percent of Israeli Jews support the Netanyahu government's handling of the issue with the Obama administration and 69 percent oppose a freeze on Jewish building.
Beyond Obama's agitation on the issue of Jewish construction, Israelis are dismayed by what they perceive as the generally hostile approach he has adopted in dealing with the Jewish state. This approach was nowhere more in evidence than in his speech to the Islamic world in Cairo on June 4.
It wasn't just Obama's comparison of Palestinian terrorism to the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa, the American civil rights movement and antebellum slave rebellions that set people off. There was also Obama's inference that Israel owes its legitimacy to the Holocaust.
It is that claim - Obama repeated it during his visit to Buchenwald - which forms the basis of the Islamic narrative against Israel. It argues that Jews are not indigenous to the Middle East, and that the only thing keeping Israel in place is European guilt about Auschwitz. Not only do Israelis of all political stripes reject this as factually false, they recognize it is inherently anti-Semitic because it ignores and negates 3,500 years of Jewish history in the land of Israel.
With Israeli distrust of Obama so apparent, and so easily explained, two questions arise: How has Obama managed to maintain American Jewish support despite his unprecedented unpopularity in Israel? And what is the likelihood that when push comes to shove, American Jews will stand with Israel against the president they so admire?
Obama's great success in maintaining support among American Jews owes much to the fact that most American Jews do not pick up the same messages from Obama's statements as do Israeli Jews. Whereas Israeli Jews recognize that it is morally obscene, strategically suicidal and historically inaccurate to suggest that Israel has no rights to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and that Jews have no right to live there, American Jews do not intuitively understand this to be the case. Consequently, while Israeli Jews recognize Obama's calls for a total freeze in Jewish construction in these areas as inherently hostile, most American Jews do not.
Beyond this, for the past 15 years, Holocaust education - more so than Zionist education or Jewish religious education - has become the hallmark of American Jewish identity. As a consequence, American Jews may not see anything objectionable in Obama's inference that Israel owes its existence to the Holocaust.
If the divergence in U.S. Jewish and Israeli attitudes toward Obama is simply a consequence of a lack of American Jewish awareness of the significance of Obama's positions and policies for Israel, then the disparity in views can be easily remedied by a sustained issues awareness campaign by Israel and by American Jewish organizations. For many of Israel's core American Jewish supporters, such a campaign would no doubt go a long way in energizing them to challenge the administration on its positions vis-à-vis Israel.
But there are other factors at work. According to the American Jewish Committee's 2008 survey of American Jews, some 67 percent of American Jews feel close to Israel. These numbers, while high, are not significantly higher than similar support levels among the general U.S. population. (A survey of general American sentiment toward Israel conducted this month by the Israel Project shows that support for Israel has dropped by 20 percent in the past nine months - from 69 to 49 percent. Presumably, Jewish American support for Israel has also experienced a drop.)
More significantly, the AJC survey showed that in the lead-up to the 2008 presidential elections, only three percent of American Jews said a candidate's position on Israel was the most important issue for them. Indeed, according to survey after survey of American Jewish opinion over the past decade, U.S. Jewish support for Israel, while widespread, is not particularly deep. This sentiment lends to the conclusion that American Jews will not abandon or temper their support for Obama simply because he is perceived as being hostile to Israel.
The picture, then, is a mixed bag. Support for Israel against Obama will likely rise as a consequence of a sustained educational campaign among American Jews about the issues in dispute and their importance for Israel's security and national well-being. But even in that event, it is unclear how dramatic the shift would be. Given the shallowness of U.S. Jewish support for Israel, no doubt many American Jews will not care enough to reassess their positions on either Israel or Obama.
The one bit of encouraging news in all this is the persistence of support for Israel relative to Palestinians among rank and file Americans. Palestinians are supported by a mere five percent of Americans.
No doubt it is this disparity that is motivating leading Democratic politicians - most recently Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic Senator Robert Menendez from New Jersey - to publicly distance themselves from the administration's Mideast policies.
If U.S. Jewish leaders and pro-Israel activists can educate just a fraction of the American Jewish community, and motivate them to stand with Israel in a significant way against administration pressure, this will likely motivate still more lawmakers and politicians from both parties to maintain support for Israel against the administration. Certainly it will help convince Israelis we haven't been abandoned by American Jewry. And that in itself would be no mean achievement.
Caroline Glick is senior contributing editor at The Jerusalem Post. Her Jewish Press-exclusive column appears the last week of each month. Her book "The Shackled Warrior: Israel and the Global Jihad," is available at Amazon.com.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Cyprus halts aid boats bound for Gaza Strip
US-based Free Gaza Movement planned to take 33 activists to Gaza with medical supplies and cement; Cypriot shipping officials cited inspection requirements for stopping the two vessels from leaving port
Reuters
Israel News
YNET News
Cyprus stopped two boats planning to carry aid to the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade from leaving port on Thursday, officials said. The US-based Free Gaza Movement had been planning to take 33 activists to Gaza with medical supplies and cement, a material that Israel does not allow into the Palestinian territory devastated by a short war that ended early this year.
The Free Gaza Movement started sending regular aid voyages from Cyprus to Gaza in August 2008, but one of its boats was involved in a collision with an Israeli vessel in December, and was turned back on another mission in January.
Cypriot shipping officials cited inspection requirements for stopping the two vessels, a small ferry and a sailing boat, from leaving port two hours before their scheduled departure.
Both vessels had travelled to Gaza before.
"One of the ships was only recently registered in Cyprus and under Cyprus law it has to undergo inspection before being given permission to sail," said Serghios Serghiou, head of Cyprus's Department of Merchant Shipping. "(The second) ... did not apply for any inspections before sailing."
Israel tightened a blockade on Gaza in 2007 after the Islamist group Hamas took control of the enclave, a tiny sliver of territory home to some 1.5 million people.
Israel bans imports of cement, steel or other building supplies to Gaza, saying militants could use them for military purposes. One of the vessels was to carry 15 tons of cement.
Israeli forces bombed then invaded Gaza in late December 2008 with a declared aim of ending cross-border rocket attacks from the Hamas-ruled territory.
The war damaged infrastructure and hurt an economy already hobbled by years of isolation.
WHY IRAN'S JUNE REVOLT EMPHASIZES OBAMA'S ABSENCE OF LEADERSHIP
Sultan Knish
23 Jun 2009
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2009/06/why-irans-june-revolt-emphasizes-obamas.html
The Bush Administration's guiding policy on the Middle East was that stability comes from aiding and promoting the spread of Democracy. The Obama Administration's guiding policy on the Middle East is that stability comes from discarding or even outright suppressing Middle Eastern democracies, particularly if they are not run by Arab Muslims, as sources of instability in the region. The Bush Administration pursued a military war to overthrow a tyrant and liberate Iraq. The Obama Administration is pursuing a diplomatic war against Israel to overthrow a democratic government and establish a terrorist state. The contrast between the Bush and Obama administrations is the contrast between America's ideals in action and the same cynical pandering to Muslim dictatorships, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, that has the Middle East a source of terrorism in the first place.
The advocates of stability naturally turn out to be the greatest supporters of appeasement, giving the murderous squeaky wheels whatever grease they think will keep them from going on homicidal purges. This failed policy dominated the Clinton Administration, which shelled out aid to the Taliban, took nothing but cosmetic action when Saddam attempted to assassinate a former United States President and actually wound up going to war to create a new Muslim state in the Balkans. Naturally pressuring Israel to create a Palestinian Arab terrorist state in the middle of one of the most prosperous countries in the Middle East was high on the agenda, and was Bill Clinton's most admired foreign policy accomplishment.
17 years later, the Palestinian territories are a festering sore filled with Islamist terrorists who are continually innovating new terrorist tactics that have then been used against Allied troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile the breakup of Yugoslavia has led to a vast drug and human smuggling pipeline into the heartland of Europe. Members of the Clinton backed KLA, which financed itself through the drug trade, have become crime bosses all through Europe... those who haven't gone on to become Islamist terrorists that is. It was left to the Bush Administration to deal with Saddam Hussein and with Osama Bin Laden, but not before the latter managed to kill 3000 Americans.
So much for stability.
As an advocate of bringing stability by appeasing tyrants and terrorists, Obama's fumbling response to the Iranian street protests is exactly what one would expect from a man who took Democracy off the table in Cairo and pushed diplomacy with the regime of the Mullahs as his foreign policy agenda.
The Iranian June Revolt has badly upset the Obama applecart, which was working to appeasing Muslim tyrannies by forcing concessions from Israel, while pandering to the Iranian regime. And now in the absence of leadership America has no useful response to make. Rather than demonize the Iranian street protests against Ahmadinejad, the way that it demonized the Venezulean street protests against Chavez, the left has increasingly chosen to side with them. This leaves Obama stuck fumbling for increasingly bolder statements on the riots to appease his domestic supporters, even as he tries to reassure the rest of the Muslim tyrannies that the United States would never interfere in their internal affairs. (A privilege apparently reserved by Obama for Israel, Greece, Germany and other Democratic nations.)
The June Revolt in Iran is bursting through the illusion that Obama is any kind of leader. The illusion of Obama's leadership has been maintained through scripted speeches, head thrust back poses and prominent liberal figures enthusiastically praising his leadership. But the real test of leadership is a crisis. And in this crisis, Obama has sat on the sidelines, gone for ice cream, fumbled and done absolutely nothing.
During the election, Biden predicted, "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy... Remember, I said it standing here, if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy... He's going to have to make some really tough - I don't know what the decision's going to be, but I promise you it will occur."
He then called on the donors to be prepared to rise to Mr. Obama's defense because he will need to make some difficult and unpopular choices in response. "And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."
Biden's likely reference was to the Bay of Pigs, which occurred several months after JFK took office. It was sabotaged by Kennedy's refusal to provide aid and naval support to the Cuban liberation forces, resulting in the deaths of both Cuban fighters and American personnel on the ground. That "difficult and unpopular" choice was only partially later redeemed by Kennedy's actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
In 1940 Kennedy had responded to Churchill's While England Slept, a warning against appeasement, with Why England Slept, a defense of the appeasement propounded by his father, Joe Kennedy. As President, Kennedy discovered that America did not have the luxury of sleep, and learned from his mistakes. What he did not need however, was the uncritical support that Biden asked on behalf of Obama. Real leaders don't need to be pandered too or given uncritical support, they need to be challenged.
That is why Obama is not a leader. Beneath his media haze, Obama is a little man sitting in a big chair, distributing graft to his backers, and tiptoeing around the world to promise America's enemies that America is no longer a threat.
But the fight for freedom is not limited to America. It never was. Obama chose to keep America on the sidelines, to enable tyranny and suppress freedom. Nevertheless with the June Revolt, freedom has sprung up anyway.
23 Jun 2009
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2009/06/why-irans-june-revolt-emphasizes-obamas.html
The Bush Administration's guiding policy on the Middle East was that stability comes from aiding and promoting the spread of Democracy. The Obama Administration's guiding policy on the Middle East is that stability comes from discarding or even outright suppressing Middle Eastern democracies, particularly if they are not run by Arab Muslims, as sources of instability in the region. The Bush Administration pursued a military war to overthrow a tyrant and liberate Iraq. The Obama Administration is pursuing a diplomatic war against Israel to overthrow a democratic government and establish a terrorist state. The contrast between the Bush and Obama administrations is the contrast between America's ideals in action and the same cynical pandering to Muslim dictatorships, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, that has the Middle East a source of terrorism in the first place.
The advocates of stability naturally turn out to be the greatest supporters of appeasement, giving the murderous squeaky wheels whatever grease they think will keep them from going on homicidal purges. This failed policy dominated the Clinton Administration, which shelled out aid to the Taliban, took nothing but cosmetic action when Saddam attempted to assassinate a former United States President and actually wound up going to war to create a new Muslim state in the Balkans. Naturally pressuring Israel to create a Palestinian Arab terrorist state in the middle of one of the most prosperous countries in the Middle East was high on the agenda, and was Bill Clinton's most admired foreign policy accomplishment.
17 years later, the Palestinian territories are a festering sore filled with Islamist terrorists who are continually innovating new terrorist tactics that have then been used against Allied troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile the breakup of Yugoslavia has led to a vast drug and human smuggling pipeline into the heartland of Europe. Members of the Clinton backed KLA, which financed itself through the drug trade, have become crime bosses all through Europe... those who haven't gone on to become Islamist terrorists that is. It was left to the Bush Administration to deal with Saddam Hussein and with Osama Bin Laden, but not before the latter managed to kill 3000 Americans.
So much for stability.
As an advocate of bringing stability by appeasing tyrants and terrorists, Obama's fumbling response to the Iranian street protests is exactly what one would expect from a man who took Democracy off the table in Cairo and pushed diplomacy with the regime of the Mullahs as his foreign policy agenda.
The Iranian June Revolt has badly upset the Obama applecart, which was working to appeasing Muslim tyrannies by forcing concessions from Israel, while pandering to the Iranian regime. And now in the absence of leadership America has no useful response to make. Rather than demonize the Iranian street protests against Ahmadinejad, the way that it demonized the Venezulean street protests against Chavez, the left has increasingly chosen to side with them. This leaves Obama stuck fumbling for increasingly bolder statements on the riots to appease his domestic supporters, even as he tries to reassure the rest of the Muslim tyrannies that the United States would never interfere in their internal affairs. (A privilege apparently reserved by Obama for Israel, Greece, Germany and other Democratic nations.)
The June Revolt in Iran is bursting through the illusion that Obama is any kind of leader. The illusion of Obama's leadership has been maintained through scripted speeches, head thrust back poses and prominent liberal figures enthusiastically praising his leadership. But the real test of leadership is a crisis. And in this crisis, Obama has sat on the sidelines, gone for ice cream, fumbled and done absolutely nothing.
During the election, Biden predicted, "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy... Remember, I said it standing here, if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy... He's going to have to make some really tough - I don't know what the decision's going to be, but I promise you it will occur."
He then called on the donors to be prepared to rise to Mr. Obama's defense because he will need to make some difficult and unpopular choices in response. "And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."
Biden's likely reference was to the Bay of Pigs, which occurred several months after JFK took office. It was sabotaged by Kennedy's refusal to provide aid and naval support to the Cuban liberation forces, resulting in the deaths of both Cuban fighters and American personnel on the ground. That "difficult and unpopular" choice was only partially later redeemed by Kennedy's actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
In 1940 Kennedy had responded to Churchill's While England Slept, a warning against appeasement, with Why England Slept, a defense of the appeasement propounded by his father, Joe Kennedy. As President, Kennedy discovered that America did not have the luxury of sleep, and learned from his mistakes. What he did not need however, was the uncritical support that Biden asked on behalf of Obama. Real leaders don't need to be pandered too or given uncritical support, they need to be challenged.
That is why Obama is not a leader. Beneath his media haze, Obama is a little man sitting in a big chair, distributing graft to his backers, and tiptoeing around the world to promise America's enemies that America is no longer a threat.
But the fight for freedom is not limited to America. It never was. Obama chose to keep America on the sidelines, to enable tyranny and suppress freedom. Nevertheless with the June Revolt, freedom has sprung up anyway.
American Jews fund anti-Israel organizations
WorldNetDaily
A U.S. organization has been receiving money from perhaps unsuspecting Jewish donors to support blatantly anti-Israel groups.
American Jews wishing to donate money to Israeli causes routinely utilize local city Jewish federations as a middleman. Hundreds of millions of dollars per year are sent to Jewish federations across the country with the expectation contributions will be used to aid worthy causes in Israel. Many U.S. Jewish federations as well as individual Jewish donors give to the New Israel Fund, or NIF, a Washington, D.C.-based foundation dedicated to fostering social change and progressive causes in Israel.
Is Israel aleady done for? Find out in Aaron Klein's "The Late Great State of Israel"
The NIF budget comes from a combination of donors. These include the Ford Foundation, grant organizations such as the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation and the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, as well as various Jewish communal federations such as the Jewish Federation in New York, the Durham-Chapel Hill Federation and the Jewish Federation of Grand Rapids.
However, while many of the programs run by the NIF are considered laudable in the pro-Israel community, such as work the group does with economically disadvantaged Ethiopian immigrants, the flagship grantees of the NIF are Israeli-Arab nongovernmental organizations that openly and unabashedly dedicate themselves to removing the Jewish character of the state of Israel.
(Story continues below)
The NIF disperses hundreds of thousands of dollars for the core budgets of such groups as Adalah: The Legal Center for Minority Arab Rights in Israel, Mossawa: The advocacy center for Arab citizens in Israel and I'lam media center for Arab Palestinians in Israel.
Supporting Iran's nukes
I'lam was founded in the wake of the Palestinian intifada, or terrorist war, initiated in September 2000 after then-PLO Leader Yasser Arafat turned down an Israeli offer of a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem.
The first director of I'lam was Hanin Zoabi, recently elected as a member of the Israeli Arab Balad Party in the Knesset. Zoabi's party spawned Azmi Bishara, the Israeli Arab Knesset member who fled Israel after he was threatened with prosecution for allegedly aiding the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Balad officials routinely condemn Israel and at times openly present themselves as representing the state of "Palestine."
In April, in Zoabi's maiden interview to the Jerusalem Post as a Knesset member, she declared her open support for Iranian nuclear weapons as a counterbalance to Israel.
Zoabi, in her capacity as the director of I'lam, helped draft and sign the Haifa Declaration, which called for the negation of Israel's Jewish identity and for a "comprehensive change in Israeli policy, whereby Israel abandons its destructive role towards the peoples of the region. …"
In March, I'lam's so-called empowerment coordinator, Zaher Boulos, issued a "cry of solidarity with the Palestinian people who hold strong to the establishment of a Palestinian state that is independent with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of the refugees to their homes" at the annual conference of the Forum of Journalists, an I'lam affiliate of which he is also coordinator.
The conference expressed "support for the Palestinian people in their struggle for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of refugees."
Also in March, I'lam issued a press release stating Israel cannot "liquidate the fact that Jerusalem is the capital of Arab culture and will be the future capital of a Palestinian state, and tomorrow will be the focal point of the Arab and Islamic world and the progressive forces in the world."
The terminology in I'lam's media publications resounds with terms such as "massacre" and "ethnic cleansing," as well as accusations of war crimes and the targeted murder of journalists.
Last year, the NIF-funded organization held a conference in Ramallah with journalists from the Palestinian Authority which "aimed to develop and facilitate working relationships between Palestinians journalists in Israel and in the West Bank, and to discuss the role of the Palestinian media on both sides of the Green Line" as well as "exploring strategies for Palestinian media practitioners in addressing Israeli, European and U.S.-American media."
I'lam's official statements are representative of the rhetoric employed by some of the NIF's grantees.
I'lam posted on its website a statement declaring, "The (Israeli) soldiers are the grandchildren of the Nazis' victims, the Nazis' survivors. They have come here to consume food quickly and consume life quickly. This is the true image of Israel."
The statement was made in the context of accusing Israeli soldiers of a "massacre" against Palestinian civilians.
The connection of I'lam to the PA is reflected by its current staff.
Sanaa Hammoud, the current director of I'lam, was a senior official of the PA's Negotiations Support Unit in Ramallah and served in Jerusalem as a senior communications adviser for the Palestinian leadership.
Wadea Awawdy, who served on the founding board of directors of I'lam, worked as a correspondent for the official PA publication Al-Ayyam, which routinely prints anti-Israel propaganda.
I'lam's international relations coordinator, Nasser Victor Rego, has issued numerous statements of support for Hamas, terming the Islamist group "The Palestinian resistance," while providing a link on his blog to the website of Hamas' armed wing, the Essedeen Al-Qassam Brigades.
Nasser also has called on the international community to boycott Israel..
Rego would not return calls to comment on the issue.
In addition to receiving funds from the NIF, I'lam is also a grantee of Al-Quds: Capital of Arab Culture, which works under the auspices of both the PA and the Arab League.
Among other charges laid against Israel in materials distributed by I'lam are allegations that the Hebrew media contains, "Encouragement for killing and destruction."
Other anti-Israel groups
Also supported by the NIF is Adalah, which defines itself as a non-partisan human rights organization. However, its agenda differs significantly from its self-definition.
Jerusalem-based researcher Arlene Kushner, in her study of Adalah published by the Center for Near East Policy Research entitled "Inside Adalah," finds that "in various venues – including the Durban U.N. conference on racism – Adalah has charged or participating in charging Israel with grave breeches of international humanitarian law, war crimes, willful killing, racism, apartheid [and] ethnic cleansing."
Adalah takes the position that the Israeli government is a "junta which proves each day that it is the most fascist and racist in history."
In 2007, Adalah proposed a constitution for Israel in which immigration of Jews would be banned except for "humanitarian reasons." With its demand for the right of return for so-called Palestinian refugees, Adalah sees Israel's future as one with an Arab majority, which would create another predominantly Arab-Muslim state.
Another group funded by the NIF is Mossawa. Last month, Mossawa and fellow NIF grantee Coalition of Women for Peace wrote to the Norwegian government and asked "the Norwegian people to join us in our efforts and to stop investing in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory."
Naomi Paiss, director of communications for the NIF, declined to comment for this report.
A U.S. organization has been receiving money from perhaps unsuspecting Jewish donors to support blatantly anti-Israel groups.
American Jews wishing to donate money to Israeli causes routinely utilize local city Jewish federations as a middleman. Hundreds of millions of dollars per year are sent to Jewish federations across the country with the expectation contributions will be used to aid worthy causes in Israel. Many U.S. Jewish federations as well as individual Jewish donors give to the New Israel Fund, or NIF, a Washington, D.C.-based foundation dedicated to fostering social change and progressive causes in Israel.
Is Israel aleady done for? Find out in Aaron Klein's "The Late Great State of Israel"
The NIF budget comes from a combination of donors. These include the Ford Foundation, grant organizations such as the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation and the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, as well as various Jewish communal federations such as the Jewish Federation in New York, the Durham-Chapel Hill Federation and the Jewish Federation of Grand Rapids.
However, while many of the programs run by the NIF are considered laudable in the pro-Israel community, such as work the group does with economically disadvantaged Ethiopian immigrants, the flagship grantees of the NIF are Israeli-Arab nongovernmental organizations that openly and unabashedly dedicate themselves to removing the Jewish character of the state of Israel.
(Story continues below)
The NIF disperses hundreds of thousands of dollars for the core budgets of such groups as Adalah: The Legal Center for Minority Arab Rights in Israel, Mossawa: The advocacy center for Arab citizens in Israel and I'lam media center for Arab Palestinians in Israel.
Supporting Iran's nukes
I'lam was founded in the wake of the Palestinian intifada, or terrorist war, initiated in September 2000 after then-PLO Leader Yasser Arafat turned down an Israeli offer of a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem.
The first director of I'lam was Hanin Zoabi, recently elected as a member of the Israeli Arab Balad Party in the Knesset. Zoabi's party spawned Azmi Bishara, the Israeli Arab Knesset member who fled Israel after he was threatened with prosecution for allegedly aiding the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Balad officials routinely condemn Israel and at times openly present themselves as representing the state of "Palestine."
In April, in Zoabi's maiden interview to the Jerusalem Post as a Knesset member, she declared her open support for Iranian nuclear weapons as a counterbalance to Israel.
Zoabi, in her capacity as the director of I'lam, helped draft and sign the Haifa Declaration, which called for the negation of Israel's Jewish identity and for a "comprehensive change in Israeli policy, whereby Israel abandons its destructive role towards the peoples of the region. …"
In March, I'lam's so-called empowerment coordinator, Zaher Boulos, issued a "cry of solidarity with the Palestinian people who hold strong to the establishment of a Palestinian state that is independent with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of the refugees to their homes" at the annual conference of the Forum of Journalists, an I'lam affiliate of which he is also coordinator.
The conference expressed "support for the Palestinian people in their struggle for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of refugees."
Also in March, I'lam issued a press release stating Israel cannot "liquidate the fact that Jerusalem is the capital of Arab culture and will be the future capital of a Palestinian state, and tomorrow will be the focal point of the Arab and Islamic world and the progressive forces in the world."
The terminology in I'lam's media publications resounds with terms such as "massacre" and "ethnic cleansing," as well as accusations of war crimes and the targeted murder of journalists.
Last year, the NIF-funded organization held a conference in Ramallah with journalists from the Palestinian Authority which "aimed to develop and facilitate working relationships between Palestinians journalists in Israel and in the West Bank, and to discuss the role of the Palestinian media on both sides of the Green Line" as well as "exploring strategies for Palestinian media practitioners in addressing Israeli, European and U.S.-American media."
I'lam's official statements are representative of the rhetoric employed by some of the NIF's grantees.
I'lam posted on its website a statement declaring, "The (Israeli) soldiers are the grandchildren of the Nazis' victims, the Nazis' survivors. They have come here to consume food quickly and consume life quickly. This is the true image of Israel."
The statement was made in the context of accusing Israeli soldiers of a "massacre" against Palestinian civilians.
The connection of I'lam to the PA is reflected by its current staff.
Sanaa Hammoud, the current director of I'lam, was a senior official of the PA's Negotiations Support Unit in Ramallah and served in Jerusalem as a senior communications adviser for the Palestinian leadership.
Wadea Awawdy, who served on the founding board of directors of I'lam, worked as a correspondent for the official PA publication Al-Ayyam, which routinely prints anti-Israel propaganda.
I'lam's international relations coordinator, Nasser Victor Rego, has issued numerous statements of support for Hamas, terming the Islamist group "The Palestinian resistance," while providing a link on his blog to the website of Hamas' armed wing, the Essedeen Al-Qassam Brigades.
Nasser also has called on the international community to boycott Israel..
Rego would not return calls to comment on the issue.
In addition to receiving funds from the NIF, I'lam is also a grantee of Al-Quds: Capital of Arab Culture, which works under the auspices of both the PA and the Arab League.
Among other charges laid against Israel in materials distributed by I'lam are allegations that the Hebrew media contains, "Encouragement for killing and destruction."
Other anti-Israel groups
Also supported by the NIF is Adalah, which defines itself as a non-partisan human rights organization. However, its agenda differs significantly from its self-definition.
Jerusalem-based researcher Arlene Kushner, in her study of Adalah published by the Center for Near East Policy Research entitled "Inside Adalah," finds that "in various venues – including the Durban U.N. conference on racism – Adalah has charged or participating in charging Israel with grave breeches of international humanitarian law, war crimes, willful killing, racism, apartheid [and] ethnic cleansing."
Adalah takes the position that the Israeli government is a "junta which proves each day that it is the most fascist and racist in history."
In 2007, Adalah proposed a constitution for Israel in which immigration of Jews would be banned except for "humanitarian reasons." With its demand for the right of return for so-called Palestinian refugees, Adalah sees Israel's future as one with an Arab majority, which would create another predominantly Arab-Muslim state.
Another group funded by the NIF is Mossawa. Last month, Mossawa and fellow NIF grantee Coalition of Women for Peace wrote to the Norwegian government and asked "the Norwegian people to join us in our efforts and to stop investing in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory."
Naomi Paiss, director of communications for the NIF, declined to comment for this report.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
What will Netanyahu hold out for?
Ted Belman
Yesterday I speculated on what if anything Netanyahu was negotiating vis a vis the settlements. I suggested that any freeze have an expiry date.
Today Haaretz reports, Israel mulls temporary freeze on settlement construction
Israel is considering enacting a temporary freeze on settlement construction, excluding projects already underway, if the United States agrees to continued construction for natural growth once the freeze ends Thus Obama could claim he got his settlement freeze. The key is how many units in the projects underway, we will be permitted build and how long the freeze will be.
Barak believes that any progress on both the Palestinian and the regional peace tracks will render the settlement issue considerably less important, the government official said.
“If there’s progress on the peace talks, it will become clearer where the big settlement blocs are, and the gaps will become easier to bridge,” said a source close to Barak.
And if there is no progress? No way tthe Arabs will compromise.
Israel and the United States have already agreed that all unauthorized outposts are to be removed “within weeks or months,” no new settlements are to be built and no Palestinian land is to be confiscated.
However, they disagree over the duration of the settlement freeze and the future of settlement construction projects already underway.
Israel is offering to halt some settlement construction for up to six months, while the United States is interested in a considerably longer period.
In addition, Israel wants to convince Washington that building projects currently underway should be allowed to continue - including the construction of up to several thousand housing units.
Meanwhile our good friends in Europe and the US after pledging undying love for us, join the chorus in recommending that we must agree to the freeze.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi raised the settlement issue in a meeting with Netanyahu in Rome yesterday, telling him that settlement construction may become an obstacle for peace, and must be stopped.
I think the US tells its EU friends what is expected of them and they comply.
Why does everybody assume that but for settlement construction, peace is obtainable. There is no basis for it, unless they believe that Israel must agree to the Saudi Plan.
To my mind, the Obama has moved the goalposts here. The demand for a complete settlement freeze, even in the major blocks surrounding Jerusalem, follows naturally from his embrace of the Saudi Plan. Furthermore, Obama recognized that the Kadima government was unprepared to give to the Arabs more than 93% of Judea and Samaria. Obama’s policy is also to get a better offer from Israel.
If Netanyahu is prepared to go as far as Olmert went, it would still not be enough.
Does Netanyahu expect to cut a deal or does he expect no progress in reaching an agreement.
I’d like to know.n>
Yesterday I speculated on what if anything Netanyahu was negotiating vis a vis the settlements. I suggested that any freeze have an expiry date.
Today Haaretz reports, Israel mulls temporary freeze on settlement construction
Israel is considering enacting a temporary freeze on settlement construction, excluding projects already underway, if the United States agrees to continued construction for natural growth once the freeze ends Thus Obama could claim he got his settlement freeze. The key is how many units in the projects underway, we will be permitted build and how long the freeze will be.
Barak believes that any progress on both the Palestinian and the regional peace tracks will render the settlement issue considerably less important, the government official said.
“If there’s progress on the peace talks, it will become clearer where the big settlement blocs are, and the gaps will become easier to bridge,” said a source close to Barak.
And if there is no progress? No way tthe Arabs will compromise.
Israel and the United States have already agreed that all unauthorized outposts are to be removed “within weeks or months,” no new settlements are to be built and no Palestinian land is to be confiscated.
However, they disagree over the duration of the settlement freeze and the future of settlement construction projects already underway.
Israel is offering to halt some settlement construction for up to six months, while the United States is interested in a considerably longer period.
In addition, Israel wants to convince Washington that building projects currently underway should be allowed to continue - including the construction of up to several thousand housing units.
Meanwhile our good friends in Europe and the US after pledging undying love for us, join the chorus in recommending that we must agree to the freeze.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi raised the settlement issue in a meeting with Netanyahu in Rome yesterday, telling him that settlement construction may become an obstacle for peace, and must be stopped.
I think the US tells its EU friends what is expected of them and they comply.
Why does everybody assume that but for settlement construction, peace is obtainable. There is no basis for it, unless they believe that Israel must agree to the Saudi Plan.
To my mind, the Obama has moved the goalposts here. The demand for a complete settlement freeze, even in the major blocks surrounding Jerusalem, follows naturally from his embrace of the Saudi Plan. Furthermore, Obama recognized that the Kadima government was unprepared to give to the Arabs more than 93% of Judea and Samaria. Obama’s policy is also to get a better offer from Israel.
If Netanyahu is prepared to go as far as Olmert went, it would still not be enough.
Does Netanyahu expect to cut a deal or does he expect no progress in reaching an agreement.
I’d like to know.n>
Israel removes dozens of West Bank roadblocks
Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff
Recent weeks have seen a dramatic change in Israel's roadblock policy in the West Bank. Right under the nose of the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israel Defense Forces has lifted some of the main, permanent roadblocks in the West Bank, which have played a central role in restricting the movement of Palestinians, mostly between the main Palestinian cities. The decision of the defense establishment to ease Palestinian travel very much reflects the steps the Palestinian Authority security forces have taken against the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank. American pressure and demands the Palestinians be allowed to move freely in areas where there is no security risk are also a factor.
Currently, there are only 10 manned roadblocks within the West Bank (excluding those linking the territories with Israel), and searches are not carried out at every one of them. A year and a half ago, there were 35 manned roadblocks in operation.
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Moreover, the defense establishment has allowed several hundred Palestinian businessmen, holders of BMC (Businessman Card) permits, free access to Israel. However, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says its data shows there are 630 different obstacles and roadblocks in place throughout the West Bank.
A week ago the DCO roadblock (set up by the Civil Administration) was removed from the way heading into Jericho from the south. This gives the city's residents free access to all parts of the West Bank. The lifting of the roadblock to Jericho also allows access to the city to Israelis who might want to visit the casino there.
Twenty days ago the DCO roadblock to the eastern entrance to Qalqiliyah was removed, and the Einav roadblock east of Tul Karm was also lifted. In it place there are soldiers but they do not check Palestinian vehicles but only cars with Israeli license plates to prevent Israeli citizens from entering Palestinian towns.
At the roadblock of Shavei Shomron, on the exit from Jenin to Nablus, checks on Palestinian vehicles are no longer being carried out.
In essence, Palestinians from the main cities can now travel in the northern West Bank without any security checks.
The roadblocks surrounding Nablus, a city that had been under complete siege, have now all been lifted. Several months ago the roadblocks to the west and east of the city were dismantled, and two weeks ago the northern and southern roadblocks were also lifted.
Soldiers where the Nablus roadblocks stood prevent cars with Israelis from entering the city during the week, but Israeli Arabs are allowed into the city on Friday and Saturday.
The soldiers are also under orders to carry our random checks of Palestinian vehicles.
On a trip to Ramallah, Palestinians will be checked at the Za'atra roadblock, which is south of Hawara, but Palestinian eyewitnesses said there are no delays. This is the only roadblock in the northern West Bank where checks of Palestinian vehicles are still being carried out. On average, a trip between Ramallah to Jenin takes 90 minutes, while several months ago it took hours.
Last week the Aatra (Bir Zeit) roadblock north of Ramallah was lifted. Between Ramallah and the southern West Bank, Hebron and Bethlehem, the Jaba roadblock is still in operation at the Adam-La Ram junction. Palestinians told Haaretz there are still random checks on cars, but Israeli security sources said only Israeli vehicles are subjected to checks to avoid accidental entry of Israeli citizens into unauthorized Palestinian areas.
Haaretz was told "the matter will be taken care of" by security sources.
The Wadi Nar roadblock, located northeast of Bethlehem, remains manned, and random checks of vehicles are carried out. Residents of Hebron, in the southern West Bank, wishing to travel north to Jenin, will be stopped at two roadblocks for random checks, and the delays are not long.
The decision to lift the roadblocks was made by the commander of the Judean and Samaria Division, Brigadier General Noam Tivon, along with Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, commander of the Civial Administration. Mordechai and Tivon will meet with their Palestinian counterparts today at the PA's headquarters in Bethlehem.
The dismantling of the roadblocks may have begun under while Ehud Olmert was prime minister, but the pace was significantly slower than it is today. The World Bank, the international community and the Americans demanded that Israel take substantive action to improve the lot of the Palestinians in the West Bank.
The World Bank stressed in each of its recent reports that only a substantive change in the roadblock situation and easing of restrictions on movement between Palestinian cities would enable economic growth in the PA.
The lifting of the roadblocks is being done with the authorization of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and with the blessing of the Shin Bet.
On a number of occasions Netanyahu has said that he is in a position to take action to improve the day-to-day life of Palestinians in the West Bank in a way that would significantly better the economic conditions in the area.
Both Netanyahu and Barak believe that ultimately they will have no choice but to evacuate the outposts in line with American demands. While that evacuation will be met by reaction from the right wing, lifting roadblocks does not bear a significant domestic political price if there are no terrorist attacks as a result of the easing of restrictions.
Moreover, the good relations between Netanyahu and Barak has enabled the prime minister to rally the defense minister in support of removing roadblocks, while the bad blood between Olmert and Barak blocked progress on the issue.
The latest easing of travel for the Palestinians allows Israel to claim it is meeting its promises to lift restrictions and is contributing to the bettering of the Palestinian economy.
An Israeli security source told Haaretz that "the improved security situation in the West Bank permitted the lifting of the roadblocks. "When there is law and order, [and] there are no armed [Palestinians] in the streets and efforts are made to prevent terrorism, then there is no need for roadblocks," said the source.
Recent weeks have seen a dramatic change in Israel's roadblock policy in the West Bank. Right under the nose of the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israel Defense Forces has lifted some of the main, permanent roadblocks in the West Bank, which have played a central role in restricting the movement of Palestinians, mostly between the main Palestinian cities. The decision of the defense establishment to ease Palestinian travel very much reflects the steps the Palestinian Authority security forces have taken against the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank. American pressure and demands the Palestinians be allowed to move freely in areas where there is no security risk are also a factor.
Currently, there are only 10 manned roadblocks within the West Bank (excluding those linking the territories with Israel), and searches are not carried out at every one of them. A year and a half ago, there were 35 manned roadblocks in operation.
Advertisement
Moreover, the defense establishment has allowed several hundred Palestinian businessmen, holders of BMC (Businessman Card) permits, free access to Israel. However, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says its data shows there are 630 different obstacles and roadblocks in place throughout the West Bank.
A week ago the DCO roadblock (set up by the Civil Administration) was removed from the way heading into Jericho from the south. This gives the city's residents free access to all parts of the West Bank. The lifting of the roadblock to Jericho also allows access to the city to Israelis who might want to visit the casino there.
Twenty days ago the DCO roadblock to the eastern entrance to Qalqiliyah was removed, and the Einav roadblock east of Tul Karm was also lifted. In it place there are soldiers but they do not check Palestinian vehicles but only cars with Israeli license plates to prevent Israeli citizens from entering Palestinian towns.
At the roadblock of Shavei Shomron, on the exit from Jenin to Nablus, checks on Palestinian vehicles are no longer being carried out.
In essence, Palestinians from the main cities can now travel in the northern West Bank without any security checks.
The roadblocks surrounding Nablus, a city that had been under complete siege, have now all been lifted. Several months ago the roadblocks to the west and east of the city were dismantled, and two weeks ago the northern and southern roadblocks were also lifted.
Soldiers where the Nablus roadblocks stood prevent cars with Israelis from entering the city during the week, but Israeli Arabs are allowed into the city on Friday and Saturday.
The soldiers are also under orders to carry our random checks of Palestinian vehicles.
On a trip to Ramallah, Palestinians will be checked at the Za'atra roadblock, which is south of Hawara, but Palestinian eyewitnesses said there are no delays. This is the only roadblock in the northern West Bank where checks of Palestinian vehicles are still being carried out. On average, a trip between Ramallah to Jenin takes 90 minutes, while several months ago it took hours.
Last week the Aatra (Bir Zeit) roadblock north of Ramallah was lifted. Between Ramallah and the southern West Bank, Hebron and Bethlehem, the Jaba roadblock is still in operation at the Adam-La Ram junction. Palestinians told Haaretz there are still random checks on cars, but Israeli security sources said only Israeli vehicles are subjected to checks to avoid accidental entry of Israeli citizens into unauthorized Palestinian areas.
Haaretz was told "the matter will be taken care of" by security sources.
The Wadi Nar roadblock, located northeast of Bethlehem, remains manned, and random checks of vehicles are carried out. Residents of Hebron, in the southern West Bank, wishing to travel north to Jenin, will be stopped at two roadblocks for random checks, and the delays are not long.
The decision to lift the roadblocks was made by the commander of the Judean and Samaria Division, Brigadier General Noam Tivon, along with Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, commander of the Civial Administration. Mordechai and Tivon will meet with their Palestinian counterparts today at the PA's headquarters in Bethlehem.
The dismantling of the roadblocks may have begun under while Ehud Olmert was prime minister, but the pace was significantly slower than it is today. The World Bank, the international community and the Americans demanded that Israel take substantive action to improve the lot of the Palestinians in the West Bank.
The World Bank stressed in each of its recent reports that only a substantive change in the roadblock situation and easing of restrictions on movement between Palestinian cities would enable economic growth in the PA.
The lifting of the roadblocks is being done with the authorization of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and with the blessing of the Shin Bet.
On a number of occasions Netanyahu has said that he is in a position to take action to improve the day-to-day life of Palestinians in the West Bank in a way that would significantly better the economic conditions in the area.
Both Netanyahu and Barak believe that ultimately they will have no choice but to evacuate the outposts in line with American demands. While that evacuation will be met by reaction from the right wing, lifting roadblocks does not bear a significant domestic political price if there are no terrorist attacks as a result of the easing of restrictions.
Moreover, the good relations between Netanyahu and Barak has enabled the prime minister to rally the defense minister in support of removing roadblocks, while the bad blood between Olmert and Barak blocked progress on the issue.
The latest easing of travel for the Palestinians allows Israel to claim it is meeting its promises to lift restrictions and is contributing to the bettering of the Palestinian economy.
An Israeli security source told Haaretz that "the improved security situation in the West Bank permitted the lifting of the roadblocks. "When there is law and order, [and] there are no armed [Palestinians] in the streets and efforts are made to prevent terrorism, then there is no need for roadblocks," said the source.
PM: J'lem, US working on settlement deal
Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST
Israel and the US are continuing to negotiate the parameters of a settlement construction freeze, diplomatic officials said Tuesday, soon after it was announced that a scheduled meeting Thursday in Paris between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US Middle East envoy George Mitchell to discuss the matter had been postponed. In lieu of a Netanyahu-Mitchell meeting, Defense Minister Ehud Barak will travel to the US early next week in an effort to consolidate all the construction data and pave the way for a further meeting between Netanyahu and Mitchell. This will be Barak's second visit to the US this month.
Netanyahu, currently on a three-day trip to Europe, said that despite the US call for a complete settlement freeze, there were attempts to reach an agreement with Washington on the issue.
According to diplomatic officials, the meeting with Mitchell was canceled because both sides needed more time to prepare.
While the US is demanding a complete settlement-building halt, Netanyahu has said it is unreasonable to expect that Israel would completely stop all settlement construction. He repeated that assessment Tuesday during a briefing with Israeli reporters in Rome, where he was met by a public call from both Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi - who Netanyahu said was a true friend of Israel - and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini for a moratorium on settlement construction.
"I repeated to Berlusconi what I say everywhere," Netanyahu said after his meeting with the Italian premier. "We will not build new settlements, we will not expropriate land to expand settlements, and we accept the principle that the discussions about the settlements will take place in final-status negotiations."
But at the same time, he said, "we don't want them to forbid us to carry on with normal life in the settlements in Judea and Samaria."
Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast Tuesday on Italy's RAI television network that the fate of the settlements would be determined in final-status negotiations with the Palestinians. But, he said, "pending a final peace agreement, the people who are there [in the settlements] will be allowed to live a normal life. They have children, they need kindergartens, they need health clinics and so on. This is, I think, an equitable position which reflects our willingness to enter immediately into peace negotiations and get on with peace. I think that the more we spend time arguing about this, the more we waste time instead of moving toward peace."
Netanyahu emerged upbeat from his nearly two-hour meeting with Berlusconi, saying that the Italian leader had accepted the conditions the Israeli leader had laid out in his speech at Bar-Ilan University for any final-status agreement: that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and that a future Palestinian state be demilitarized.
In his briefing with reporters afterward, Netanyahu said he viewed Berlusconi's acceptance of these principles as significant and that he would continue to try and convince other leaders in Europe to accept them as well.
Netanyahu will go from Rome to Paris Wednesday for a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Later this summer he is also expected to visit Germany and Britain.
"To the extent that we remain firm behind these two principles, I think they will be accepted," Netanyahu said. He denied that the principles were "obstacles" to peace, or that they represented "tricks" or "maneuvers," saying he believed they would eventually be accepted as fundamentals to a peace agreement.
"These are necessary conditions in my mind, and also for most Israeli citizens," he said.
Netanyahu said he was not setting preconditions for starting negotiations, but that acceptance of these principles would be necessary for the negotiations with the Palestinians to progress. He dismissed the idea that the two sides should immediately begin talking about border issues, saying that this could only take place after the Palestinians accepted the two principles.
Berlusconi also endorsed Netanyahu's ideas about the need for economic development, and said that at the G-8 meeting he is hosting next month, he would raise the idea of a Marshall Plan for the West Bank that would concentrate on economic development.
Berlusconi said that one focus of the economic development should be tourism, with the goal of bringing four million tourists to the area each year.
Officials in the Prime Minister's Office said the two leaders had decided to establish a joint Italian-Israeli committee to deal with these ideas. They also decided that to encourage bilateral ties, Netanyahu and Berlusconi would hold a joint meeting of their respective cabinets, as was done last year when German Chancellor Angela Merkel brought most of her cabinet to Israel for a working visit.
Israeli officials said that during the discussion in Rome, their Italian counterparts had told them that certain countries inside Europe wanted to prevent the upgrading of the EU's relationship with Israel, but that since such a decision needed to be taken by a consensus of all 27 EU states, Italy would never let that happen.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1245184909298&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
Israel and the US are continuing to negotiate the parameters of a settlement construction freeze, diplomatic officials said Tuesday, soon after it was announced that a scheduled meeting Thursday in Paris between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US Middle East envoy George Mitchell to discuss the matter had been postponed. In lieu of a Netanyahu-Mitchell meeting, Defense Minister Ehud Barak will travel to the US early next week in an effort to consolidate all the construction data and pave the way for a further meeting between Netanyahu and Mitchell. This will be Barak's second visit to the US this month.
Netanyahu, currently on a three-day trip to Europe, said that despite the US call for a complete settlement freeze, there were attempts to reach an agreement with Washington on the issue.
According to diplomatic officials, the meeting with Mitchell was canceled because both sides needed more time to prepare.
While the US is demanding a complete settlement-building halt, Netanyahu has said it is unreasonable to expect that Israel would completely stop all settlement construction. He repeated that assessment Tuesday during a briefing with Israeli reporters in Rome, where he was met by a public call from both Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi - who Netanyahu said was a true friend of Israel - and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini for a moratorium on settlement construction.
"I repeated to Berlusconi what I say everywhere," Netanyahu said after his meeting with the Italian premier. "We will not build new settlements, we will not expropriate land to expand settlements, and we accept the principle that the discussions about the settlements will take place in final-status negotiations."
But at the same time, he said, "we don't want them to forbid us to carry on with normal life in the settlements in Judea and Samaria."
Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast Tuesday on Italy's RAI television network that the fate of the settlements would be determined in final-status negotiations with the Palestinians. But, he said, "pending a final peace agreement, the people who are there [in the settlements] will be allowed to live a normal life. They have children, they need kindergartens, they need health clinics and so on. This is, I think, an equitable position which reflects our willingness to enter immediately into peace negotiations and get on with peace. I think that the more we spend time arguing about this, the more we waste time instead of moving toward peace."
Netanyahu emerged upbeat from his nearly two-hour meeting with Berlusconi, saying that the Italian leader had accepted the conditions the Israeli leader had laid out in his speech at Bar-Ilan University for any final-status agreement: that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and that a future Palestinian state be demilitarized.
In his briefing with reporters afterward, Netanyahu said he viewed Berlusconi's acceptance of these principles as significant and that he would continue to try and convince other leaders in Europe to accept them as well.
Netanyahu will go from Rome to Paris Wednesday for a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Later this summer he is also expected to visit Germany and Britain.
"To the extent that we remain firm behind these two principles, I think they will be accepted," Netanyahu said. He denied that the principles were "obstacles" to peace, or that they represented "tricks" or "maneuvers," saying he believed they would eventually be accepted as fundamentals to a peace agreement.
"These are necessary conditions in my mind, and also for most Israeli citizens," he said.
Netanyahu said he was not setting preconditions for starting negotiations, but that acceptance of these principles would be necessary for the negotiations with the Palestinians to progress. He dismissed the idea that the two sides should immediately begin talking about border issues, saying that this could only take place after the Palestinians accepted the two principles.
Berlusconi also endorsed Netanyahu's ideas about the need for economic development, and said that at the G-8 meeting he is hosting next month, he would raise the idea of a Marshall Plan for the West Bank that would concentrate on economic development.
Berlusconi said that one focus of the economic development should be tourism, with the goal of bringing four million tourists to the area each year.
Officials in the Prime Minister's Office said the two leaders had decided to establish a joint Italian-Israeli committee to deal with these ideas. They also decided that to encourage bilateral ties, Netanyahu and Berlusconi would hold a joint meeting of their respective cabinets, as was done last year when German Chancellor Angela Merkel brought most of her cabinet to Israel for a working visit.
Israeli officials said that during the discussion in Rome, their Italian counterparts had told them that certain countries inside Europe wanted to prevent the upgrading of the EU's relationship with Israel, but that since such a decision needed to be taken by a consensus of all 27 EU states, Italy would never let that happen.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1245184909298&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Delusional or anti-Semites?
Steven Shamrak
Carter: "Hamas leaders want peace and they want to have reconciliation not only with their Fatah brothers but also eventually with Israelis to live side by side, with two nations, both sovereign nations recognized by each other and living in peace". Carter's comments came during a joint press conference with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Former President Jimmy Carter told media that the Obama Administration should remove Hamas from the terrorist list. Immediately after Carter left Gaza Ahmed Youssef, the deputy Hamas foreign minister, said "Recognizing Israel is completely unacceptable." According to Hamas ideology, there is no room for a Jewish state in an Islamic Middle East. (No media frenzy about this rejection and Carter is also silent about it!)Blair: In spite of Israel 's clear position on a subject, Tony Blair said that Israel should be open to negotiating the Arab demand for "right of return," which would allow millions who claim descent from Arabs who fled the Jewish state during the War of Independence to claim Israeli citizenship, affectively destroying the Jewish state. Nothing is said about what Arabs must do!
Hamas rejected a Red Cross announcement on Thursday that its officials be allowed to visit Shalit, as required by the Geneva Convention. Hamas officials charged that Shalit's situation is similar to that of Gaza terrorists being held in Israel, although Israel has allowed the Red Cross to visit prisoners. Hamas has provided no signs of life of Gilad Shalit!
Quote of the Week: "Obama sugar coated the pathologies of the Islamic world - from the tyranny that characterizes its regimes, to the misogyny, xenophobia, Jew hatred, and general intolerance that characterizes its societies. In so doing he made clear that his idea of pressing the restart button with the Islamic world involves erasing the moral distinctions between the Islamic world and the free world." - Caroline Glick, senior contributing editor of The Jerusalem Post.
Human Trafficking is still a Major Muslim Trade. Muslim countries in the Middle East and north-central Africa lead the world in human trafficking, according to a new U.S. State Department report. Those identified as the worst offenders and being of involved in Human Trafficking and slavery are: Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria, Mauritania, Chad, Sudan, Niger and Eritrea. Next to worst are: Algeria , Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Lebanon , all of which have very large Muslim populations. (President Obama forgot to mention this slave trade in his outreach to the Muslim world!)
IRC is not in a Rush! The Red Cross has finally called on the Hamas to allow soldier Gilad Shalit, held captive in Gaza for 1089 days, to maintain ''regular relations with his family.'' (This is the same indifference and anti-Semitic behaviour that the Red Cross exhibited during the Holocaust.)
Lame Excuse of the Traitor. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Newsweek last Wednesday that he offered PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas only 93.7 percent of Yesha, and not the 97 percent that Abbas claims he was offered. Olmert said that in addition he offered to give the PA the remaining 6.3 percent of the land from other Israeli lands. (It was the offer of 97% of Jewish Land to the enemy!)
No UN Neutrality where Israel is Concerned. United Nations Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) may have been involved in arresting Lebanese citizens suspected of spying for Israel . Video footage has been shown in which a Spanish UNIFIL commander states that his troops worked with Lebanese troops to arrest alleged spies for Israel in primarily Shiite Muslim areas. UNIFIL has been charged with ensuring that Hizbullah does not rebuild its weapons supplies - a task at which it has failed - but has not been authorized to take part in internal Lebanese affairs.
About Time! Yisrael Beiteinu Mks Leah Shemtov and Moshe Matalon will present to the government's Ministerial Law Committee a proposed law that, if enacted, would require all schools in Israel to teach Zionism and Israeli history. (All other countries teach their children the history of their nation. Why not Israel ?)
Another Case Against Assimilation of Jews. Adam Yahiye Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, discusses his roots as he castigates U.S. policies and deplores Israel's offensive in Gaza : "Your speaker has Jews in his ancestry, the last of whom was his grandfather." Growing up in rural California, Gadahn embraced Islam in the mid-1990s, moved to Pakistan . Gadahn says his grandfather was a "Zionist" and "a zealous supporter of the usurper entity, and a prominent member of a number of Zionist hate organizations." (History is full of examples of where people with Jewish ancestry have become hyper-active, hateful enemies of the Jews!)
Food for Thought. by Steven Shamrak
Considering the response of the United States to one terror attack perpetrated by Al Quaida, what do you think the appropriate response by Israel should be after more than 60 years of continuous terror attacks perpetrated by or on behalf of fake nation, Palestinians?
Arab's Export to Israel. The Galilee Police's drug squad thwarted an attempt to smuggle 44 kilograms (97 pounds) of heroin from Jordan last week.
Mitchell vs US : Open Gaza Now, Free Shalit Later. U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell has advised Israel to relax restrictions at the Gaza crossings without demanding that Hamas free kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. An American Embassy spokesman told Israel National News, "Mitchell will have to speak for himself. These are very sensitive issues." (What is the point of having an official envoy if he only speaks "for himself"? Why did the US not speak to Afghanistan and Iraq but instead attacked them in the name of national security ?)
At Least one European MP Recognized the Truth. In April Wilders, Dutch MP at the European Parliament, announced he was working on a movie sequel which focuses on "Islamization in the West" and will show "how the forces of Islamization are specifically targeting Israel in a fight against all free societies." He added: "The film will demonstrate that the fight against Israel is not territorial, and hence Israel is only the first line of defense for the West. Now it's Israel but we are next. That's why beyond solidarity, it is in Europe's interest to stand by Israel ."
Ugliness of PA's Family. Palestinian Authority (PA) police have arrested three members of a family from the Samarian village of Hijah. Members of the 15-year-old boy's family tortured and killed him because he was cooperated with Israeli authorities.
Provocation by Self-hating Leftists in Yesha. Twenty radical leftists came on Shabbat to Nachal Tsofit, a community near Bat Ayin, apparently in order to cause provocations with residents, witnesses said. Local residents confronted them, in an effort to ensure that they would not attempt to damage property or agricultural fields belonging to the community. During the confrontation, the leftists began throwing stones at the residents.
Quote of the Week: "Jews! Unique nation of the world! For thousands of years the tyranny of the world has succeeded in depriving you of your ancestral lands but it has not eradicated your name, nor your national existence... Legitimate heirs of the Land of Israel!... Hurry! The moment has arrived to claim the return of your rights among the nations of the world. You must claim for yourselves a national existence as states among states, and your unencroachable right to bow down before God according to your faith, publicly and forever." - Napoleon Bonaparte, "Appeal to the Jews", 1798.
What Financial Crisis? The United States has promised another $55 million to UNWRA, the UN agency that takes care of more than 4.5 million long-term, professional Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. This brings the US contribution to UNWRA for the year 2009 to $154.5 million. (For 60 years the international community has been fostering the instability in the Middle East. Billions of dollars are wasted every year to keep political pressure on Israel.)
Female Terrorists of PA. 500 Palestinian women in Nablus are providing wanted Hamas terrorists with sanctuary and permitting their bank accounts to be used to whitewash Hamas revenues. Three Hamas female suicide killers were captured recently.
Is Obama Constitutionally Eligible to Serve?
Why has Obama still not Confirmed his status as "natural born citizen"? It is a Constitutional Requirement for the Position of US President?
Despite a near media blackout on coverage, which is not a good sign of a healthy democracy, 49.3% are 'troubled' and think that Obama should release his birth certificate. This issue, Obama's eligibility to be the president of the United States, would be immediately resolved if President Obama revealed his original birth certificate. Why hasn't he?
On April 10 of 2008, two senators, both Democrats, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, introduced a resolution into the upper house expressing a sense of the Senate that John McCain, who was born on a U.S. military base overseas to two U.S. citizens, was indeed a "natural born citizen." It's interesting what Leahy had to say on the subject: "Because he was born to American citizens (emphasis added), there is no doubt in my mind that Senator McCain is a natural born citizen. I expect that this will be a unanimous resolution of the U.S. Senate."
By deliberately hiding details of his birth Obama is showing his contempt for the American voters and spitefulness toward the Constitution of the United States of America ! What, if anything, is he hiding?
Carter: "Hamas leaders want peace and they want to have reconciliation not only with their Fatah brothers but also eventually with Israelis to live side by side, with two nations, both sovereign nations recognized by each other and living in peace". Carter's comments came during a joint press conference with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Former President Jimmy Carter told media that the Obama Administration should remove Hamas from the terrorist list. Immediately after Carter left Gaza Ahmed Youssef, the deputy Hamas foreign minister, said "Recognizing Israel is completely unacceptable." According to Hamas ideology, there is no room for a Jewish state in an Islamic Middle East. (No media frenzy about this rejection and Carter is also silent about it!)Blair: In spite of Israel 's clear position on a subject, Tony Blair said that Israel should be open to negotiating the Arab demand for "right of return," which would allow millions who claim descent from Arabs who fled the Jewish state during the War of Independence to claim Israeli citizenship, affectively destroying the Jewish state. Nothing is said about what Arabs must do!
Hamas rejected a Red Cross announcement on Thursday that its officials be allowed to visit Shalit, as required by the Geneva Convention. Hamas officials charged that Shalit's situation is similar to that of Gaza terrorists being held in Israel, although Israel has allowed the Red Cross to visit prisoners. Hamas has provided no signs of life of Gilad Shalit!
Quote of the Week: "Obama sugar coated the pathologies of the Islamic world - from the tyranny that characterizes its regimes, to the misogyny, xenophobia, Jew hatred, and general intolerance that characterizes its societies. In so doing he made clear that his idea of pressing the restart button with the Islamic world involves erasing the moral distinctions between the Islamic world and the free world." - Caroline Glick, senior contributing editor of The Jerusalem Post.
Human Trafficking is still a Major Muslim Trade. Muslim countries in the Middle East and north-central Africa lead the world in human trafficking, according to a new U.S. State Department report. Those identified as the worst offenders and being of involved in Human Trafficking and slavery are: Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria, Mauritania, Chad, Sudan, Niger and Eritrea. Next to worst are: Algeria , Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Lebanon , all of which have very large Muslim populations. (President Obama forgot to mention this slave trade in his outreach to the Muslim world!)
IRC is not in a Rush! The Red Cross has finally called on the Hamas to allow soldier Gilad Shalit, held captive in Gaza for 1089 days, to maintain ''regular relations with his family.'' (This is the same indifference and anti-Semitic behaviour that the Red Cross exhibited during the Holocaust.)
Lame Excuse of the Traitor. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Newsweek last Wednesday that he offered PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas only 93.7 percent of Yesha, and not the 97 percent that Abbas claims he was offered. Olmert said that in addition he offered to give the PA the remaining 6.3 percent of the land from other Israeli lands. (It was the offer of 97% of Jewish Land to the enemy!)
No UN Neutrality where Israel is Concerned. United Nations Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) may have been involved in arresting Lebanese citizens suspected of spying for Israel . Video footage has been shown in which a Spanish UNIFIL commander states that his troops worked with Lebanese troops to arrest alleged spies for Israel in primarily Shiite Muslim areas. UNIFIL has been charged with ensuring that Hizbullah does not rebuild its weapons supplies - a task at which it has failed - but has not been authorized to take part in internal Lebanese affairs.
About Time! Yisrael Beiteinu Mks Leah Shemtov and Moshe Matalon will present to the government's Ministerial Law Committee a proposed law that, if enacted, would require all schools in Israel to teach Zionism and Israeli history. (All other countries teach their children the history of their nation. Why not Israel ?)
Another Case Against Assimilation of Jews. Adam Yahiye Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, discusses his roots as he castigates U.S. policies and deplores Israel's offensive in Gaza : "Your speaker has Jews in his ancestry, the last of whom was his grandfather." Growing up in rural California, Gadahn embraced Islam in the mid-1990s, moved to Pakistan . Gadahn says his grandfather was a "Zionist" and "a zealous supporter of the usurper entity, and a prominent member of a number of Zionist hate organizations." (History is full of examples of where people with Jewish ancestry have become hyper-active, hateful enemies of the Jews!)
Food for Thought. by Steven Shamrak
Considering the response of the United States to one terror attack perpetrated by Al Quaida, what do you think the appropriate response by Israel should be after more than 60 years of continuous terror attacks perpetrated by or on behalf of fake nation, Palestinians?
Arab's Export to Israel. The Galilee Police's drug squad thwarted an attempt to smuggle 44 kilograms (97 pounds) of heroin from Jordan last week.
Mitchell vs US : Open Gaza Now, Free Shalit Later. U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell has advised Israel to relax restrictions at the Gaza crossings without demanding that Hamas free kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. An American Embassy spokesman told Israel National News, "Mitchell will have to speak for himself. These are very sensitive issues." (What is the point of having an official envoy if he only speaks "for himself"? Why did the US not speak to Afghanistan and Iraq but instead attacked them in the name of national security ?)
At Least one European MP Recognized the Truth. In April Wilders, Dutch MP at the European Parliament, announced he was working on a movie sequel which focuses on "Islamization in the West" and will show "how the forces of Islamization are specifically targeting Israel in a fight against all free societies." He added: "The film will demonstrate that the fight against Israel is not territorial, and hence Israel is only the first line of defense for the West. Now it's Israel but we are next. That's why beyond solidarity, it is in Europe's interest to stand by Israel ."
Ugliness of PA's Family. Palestinian Authority (PA) police have arrested three members of a family from the Samarian village of Hijah. Members of the 15-year-old boy's family tortured and killed him because he was cooperated with Israeli authorities.
Provocation by Self-hating Leftists in Yesha. Twenty radical leftists came on Shabbat to Nachal Tsofit, a community near Bat Ayin, apparently in order to cause provocations with residents, witnesses said. Local residents confronted them, in an effort to ensure that they would not attempt to damage property or agricultural fields belonging to the community. During the confrontation, the leftists began throwing stones at the residents.
Quote of the Week: "Jews! Unique nation of the world! For thousands of years the tyranny of the world has succeeded in depriving you of your ancestral lands but it has not eradicated your name, nor your national existence... Legitimate heirs of the Land of Israel!... Hurry! The moment has arrived to claim the return of your rights among the nations of the world. You must claim for yourselves a national existence as states among states, and your unencroachable right to bow down before God according to your faith, publicly and forever." - Napoleon Bonaparte, "Appeal to the Jews", 1798.
What Financial Crisis? The United States has promised another $55 million to UNWRA, the UN agency that takes care of more than 4.5 million long-term, professional Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. This brings the US contribution to UNWRA for the year 2009 to $154.5 million. (For 60 years the international community has been fostering the instability in the Middle East. Billions of dollars are wasted every year to keep political pressure on Israel.)
Female Terrorists of PA. 500 Palestinian women in Nablus are providing wanted Hamas terrorists with sanctuary and permitting their bank accounts to be used to whitewash Hamas revenues. Three Hamas female suicide killers were captured recently.
Is Obama Constitutionally Eligible to Serve?
Why has Obama still not Confirmed his status as "natural born citizen"? It is a Constitutional Requirement for the Position of US President?
Despite a near media blackout on coverage, which is not a good sign of a healthy democracy, 49.3% are 'troubled' and think that Obama should release his birth certificate. This issue, Obama's eligibility to be the president of the United States, would be immediately resolved if President Obama revealed his original birth certificate. Why hasn't he?
On April 10 of 2008, two senators, both Democrats, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, introduced a resolution into the upper house expressing a sense of the Senate that John McCain, who was born on a U.S. military base overseas to two U.S. citizens, was indeed a "natural born citizen." It's interesting what Leahy had to say on the subject: "Because he was born to American citizens (emphasis added), there is no doubt in my mind that Senator McCain is a natural born citizen. I expect that this will be a unanimous resolution of the U.S. Senate."
By deliberately hiding details of his birth Obama is showing his contempt for the American voters and spitefulness toward the Constitution of the United States of America ! What, if anything, is he hiding?
Obama unable to Bully Israel-For Now
Joel Mowbray
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Following a surprising speech in which he uttered the words “Palestinian state” for the first time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has strengthened his standing at home and abroad, far exceeding expectations from all quarters. . Though last week’s address received only modest coverage in the United States, it has already shifted the dynamics of the inevitable “peace talks.” Contrary to the media’s conventional wisdom, however, Israel’s stronger negotiating position actually increases the odds of genuine, measurable progress for the Palestinians in the near term.
Emphasizing that positive steps could be taken almost immediately, a high-ranking Knesset staffer used a football analogy to explain that the Obama administration now has important question to answer: “Do they want to go for a Hail Mary pass, or will they be happy moving the ball forward?”
No amount of bromides and wishful thinking can change the reality that a “permanent” agreement has never been within reach. Israel, of course, has long been willing to make painful concessions, and the broader public still supports some form of a two-state solution. What has been lacking, though, is a willing partner on the other side of the bargaining table.
Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat famously walked away from a generous deal in July 2000 that offered him almost his every request. Shortly thereafter, he ushered in the so-called intifada, an unprecedented campaign of suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians in buses, markets and cafes.
Since then, matters have sadly deteriorated. Palestinians suffer not just a crisis of leadership, but also a crisis of culture. Thanks to the dogged efforts of groups such as Palestinian Media Watch and Middle East Media Research Institute, we know that Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza miss no opportunity in textbooks or television to poison the minds of parents and children alike.
It is little wonder that terrorism remains more popular with Palestinians than does peaceful coexistence with a Jewish state.
Much has been made—correctly—about Netanyahu’s insistence that any future Palestinian state be de-militarized and accept Israel as Jewish, but two other provisions in his speech likely will be the initial focal points as soon as talks start.
In calling on the Palestinians to “turn toward peace ... in educating their children for peace and in stopping incitement against Israel,” Netanyahu brought to the front-burner a subject largely ignored by the three prime ministers who served since his last term ended ten years ago. Here Western governments actually possess substantial leverage, as it is their taxpayers’ money that underwrites most Palestinian education and media.
Parallel to curbing indoctrination is Netanyahu’s idea of “economic peace,” which would entail fortifying the Palestinian economy and re-building the institutions of civil society. Advisors to the Israeli prime minister believe that conditions on the ground—culturally, politically, economically—must improve before the Palestinian society will be ready to embrace peace with Israel.
What is not likely to be a major sticking point in the near term is the issue that has generated the most attention in recent weeks: Israeli settlements. People close to Netanyahu believe that the highly publicized spat has been overblown, and any differences with the Obama administration will soon be resolved.
Most important was the impact the speech had on Netanyahu’s political standing inside Israel. Improbably, he garnered praise from the right and left; his approval skyrocketed 16 percent overnight.
His right-wing coalition was pleased that he didn’t cave to Obama on settlements or propose a Palestinian state that would be capable of attacking Israel.
Helping him most with shoring up support from the center and the left, though, was the shockingly coarse responses from across the Arab world to Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel be recognized as Jewish. Presumably speaking on behalf of moderate Fatah leader and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said flatly, “In a thousand years, no Palestinian leader will accept this.”
“If they won’t accept us as a Jewish state, then when will they ever accept us?” asked Shmuel, a 70-year-old native Israeli who supported Oslo and has mostly voted for left-wing candidates. Such was the sentiment across Israel, where ordinary citizens are leery of making concessions to people who won’t even agree to their country’s right to exist.
Speculation that “peace” is now dead or hopelessly delayed misses the point. Oslo proved that a signed deal alone does not bring peace.
On the table now is the prospect of making life better for Palestinians, laying the necessary foundation for a future state that is stable and—most important—committed to peace.
For the sake of all parties, Obama should not waste this historic opportunity. .
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Following a surprising speech in which he uttered the words “Palestinian state” for the first time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has strengthened his standing at home and abroad, far exceeding expectations from all quarters. . Though last week’s address received only modest coverage in the United States, it has already shifted the dynamics of the inevitable “peace talks.” Contrary to the media’s conventional wisdom, however, Israel’s stronger negotiating position actually increases the odds of genuine, measurable progress for the Palestinians in the near term.
Emphasizing that positive steps could be taken almost immediately, a high-ranking Knesset staffer used a football analogy to explain that the Obama administration now has important question to answer: “Do they want to go for a Hail Mary pass, or will they be happy moving the ball forward?”
No amount of bromides and wishful thinking can change the reality that a “permanent” agreement has never been within reach. Israel, of course, has long been willing to make painful concessions, and the broader public still supports some form of a two-state solution. What has been lacking, though, is a willing partner on the other side of the bargaining table.
Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat famously walked away from a generous deal in July 2000 that offered him almost his every request. Shortly thereafter, he ushered in the so-called intifada, an unprecedented campaign of suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians in buses, markets and cafes.
Since then, matters have sadly deteriorated. Palestinians suffer not just a crisis of leadership, but also a crisis of culture. Thanks to the dogged efforts of groups such as Palestinian Media Watch and Middle East Media Research Institute, we know that Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza miss no opportunity in textbooks or television to poison the minds of parents and children alike.
It is little wonder that terrorism remains more popular with Palestinians than does peaceful coexistence with a Jewish state.
Much has been made—correctly—about Netanyahu’s insistence that any future Palestinian state be de-militarized and accept Israel as Jewish, but two other provisions in his speech likely will be the initial focal points as soon as talks start.
In calling on the Palestinians to “turn toward peace ... in educating their children for peace and in stopping incitement against Israel,” Netanyahu brought to the front-burner a subject largely ignored by the three prime ministers who served since his last term ended ten years ago. Here Western governments actually possess substantial leverage, as it is their taxpayers’ money that underwrites most Palestinian education and media.
Parallel to curbing indoctrination is Netanyahu’s idea of “economic peace,” which would entail fortifying the Palestinian economy and re-building the institutions of civil society. Advisors to the Israeli prime minister believe that conditions on the ground—culturally, politically, economically—must improve before the Palestinian society will be ready to embrace peace with Israel.
What is not likely to be a major sticking point in the near term is the issue that has generated the most attention in recent weeks: Israeli settlements. People close to Netanyahu believe that the highly publicized spat has been overblown, and any differences with the Obama administration will soon be resolved.
Most important was the impact the speech had on Netanyahu’s political standing inside Israel. Improbably, he garnered praise from the right and left; his approval skyrocketed 16 percent overnight.
His right-wing coalition was pleased that he didn’t cave to Obama on settlements or propose a Palestinian state that would be capable of attacking Israel.
Helping him most with shoring up support from the center and the left, though, was the shockingly coarse responses from across the Arab world to Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel be recognized as Jewish. Presumably speaking on behalf of moderate Fatah leader and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said flatly, “In a thousand years, no Palestinian leader will accept this.”
“If they won’t accept us as a Jewish state, then when will they ever accept us?” asked Shmuel, a 70-year-old native Israeli who supported Oslo and has mostly voted for left-wing candidates. Such was the sentiment across Israel, where ordinary citizens are leery of making concessions to people who won’t even agree to their country’s right to exist.
Speculation that “peace” is now dead or hopelessly delayed misses the point. Oslo proved that a signed deal alone does not bring peace.
On the table now is the prospect of making life better for Palestinians, laying the necessary foundation for a future state that is stable and—most important—committed to peace.
For the sake of all parties, Obama should not waste this historic opportunity. .
A Rose to a World Gone By
Ari Bussel
June 8, 2009 (first post)
A day following his Cairo Speech, US President Barack Hussein Obama toured Buchenwald Concentration Camp accompanied by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Holocaust survivors Elie Wiesel and Bertrand Herz.
The four entered the camp, now a museum to an era gone by—but must not be forgotten—with a throng of reporters recording their every move and expression. They were given four long, white roses, which they later laid on a metal plate-tombstone on the ground. The perfect photo-op: Each in turn stepped forward, approached the flat inscribed metal plate-tombstone and laid a single rose. Dues were paid; President Obama’s tour had to continue. Six million Jews were unfathomably brutally exterminated only because they were Jews. Did the world learn any lesson? More importantly, did Jews learn any lesson? There are approximately six millions Jews in Israel today, and according to Iran, it is time to eliminate them as well. It seems as if there is no place for the Jewish State, and as stubborn as it may seem to be, it will be extracted, like a tooth, for the greater good and the possible global peace of mind. Then, one day, a white rose can be laid on a tombstone on the ground, in remembrance of a country that once was.
Several months ago, while in Israel, I was walking in Jerusalem toward the President’s Residence. The sun was setting along with a light breeze and the side street leading to the Presidential Residence was quite, not a single soul—bird or human. While walking, I noticed a building that was converted from a residence to a historical foundation memorializing the history of some group. I remember thinking that a day might come and a person like me will be walking in this very same street to notice that the foundation building still exists, but it was expanded along the entire block because it will have to hold the archive record and information of a great country that once was; the Jewish Homeland, the State of Israel.
I hastened my pace, almost running, afraid to be late for my meeting. My inner me knew with increased confidence: Israel must remain, not as a celebrated place to visit but as a viable Jewish State.
Is it time already to lament Israel? It still exists as a vibrant, diverse society, a country like no other around the world. Can the world in fact rid itself of this ‘nuisance’ called Israel? Many now advocate that our world would be a far better place if only Israel had ceased to exist.
The Thief from Bagdad
The proposition of a ‘Two State Solution’ has been in the working since the first half of the last century. “Greater Palestine” under British Mandate was divided into what today are two sovereign states, Israel and Jordan, on both sides of the Jordan River. A generation has arisen that aspires to draw new lines. Each time a line is changed in the slightest–moved, redrawn, or erased altogether--a price must be paid, blood will be spilled.
In a different era, borders were drawn on paper maps using different color markers whose thickness translated in some instances into a very weird geographical reality. Such practice of dividing lands and spheres of influence was commonplace. Take another look at Iraq for instance. Should the Kurds not have their own country, extending from portions of Turkey to Iraq? Cut a slice from Turkey, divide Iraq into three parts, and declare the independence of the Kurds.
Those living side by side in this area struggled. After several unsuccessful attempts by the Arabs to destroy Israel, a wise person arose, Yasser Arafat. Formerly a terrorist with blood of many on his hands, he understood the methodology: Grab whatever you are given, then demand more. He managed to plant a new identity, a dream depicted on maps in textbooks –a world without Israel, a Middle East devoid of Jews. A new creation: the “Palestinian People” and a dream for a “Statehood.”
Arafat was not bashful borrowing from what was never his—the Bible, historical records, archeological artifacts, even olive trees. He borrowed and used the Arabian imagination to embroider the story with beautiful artwork. So beautiful, in fact, that anyone looking at it was mesmerized, forgetting the past, oblivious to facts or reason.
The fantasy and its effects were so potent that even those far away were affected. Not really understanding the culture, background or historical framework, they all started chanting: Statehood. Give The People a Home. Very fast the chanting became a thunder, those few who dared to protest were crumpled under the feet of the multitude, and people were rushing to the mirage in the desert, wanting to satisfy this deadly desire, their craving to see the most beautiful embroidery once again.
There cannot be a Two State Solution in the area today called Israel; it simply cannot exist. The sooner we wake up and recognize this reality, the better everyone will be. Those elements in the Palestinian Authority and Hamas which armed themselves, tooth and nail, will have to be disarmed. The issue is slightly more complicated than simply stopping the armament and the training provided by Western countries. The terrorists use pipes—the ones otherwise needed for plumbing supplies, gardening, agriculture, construction and other daily uses—and turn them into deadly rockets.
A dream of a “State” requires investment in future generations: establishing state institutes, building infrastructure, applying law and order, educating children and youth, not on hatred and incitement; using religion to teach and embed values, such as helping those less fortunate and caring about others, not only oneself, and prohibiting gratifying one’s twisted desire for 72 female virgins awaiting each homicide bomber.
A phantom “Two State Solution” is not the solution, for no one is seriously pursuing building towards it. There is only death and destruction among the camp of the dreamers. They exist for only one goal: to bring about the utter and complete destruction of the State of the Jews.
Marching to the Death Showers
Israel seems to be divided. There are those who strongly believe that parts of Israel must be butchered off and given to the enemy. Then there are those who recognize the only effect of such a move would be to hasten the end, the death of the patient.
The next war will help Israelis wake up to the grim reality that it really does not matter if one is associated with the center-to left party Kadima or the center-to right party of Likud. All are Jews. When a bomb explodes, when a missile hits, when a viral, biological or chemical agent is released, the labels Israelis and Jews like so much to assign become meaningless. Everyone, including Arab-Israelis will all be dead.
Marching to take a shower, stripping of one’s clothes and then entering these large rooms without any windows, waiting for the water flow to start from above, Jewish men and women still held the belief that human beings are, of their own nature, good. No one imagined that the flow could be of Cyclone B. Even the rumors, the stories, the hints fell on deaf ears.
Labels will not matter, and death will greet us. There will be no one to blame but ourselves, as we have heard, but did not want to believe. We have read and listened but refused to comprehend. It is contrary to human nature, and it defies our culture and our ultimate being, to think that people’s fulfillment aspirations may be the utter and complete destruction of another People, of a Nation, of a State.
So we will go on arguing among ourselves in hushed voices what else we can do or give and how can we make the life of the enemy more bearable and how we are those at fault. A few will march in silence, realizing the ill path taken, when the truth dawns on them, the moment of truth reached just before eternity spreads its wings over us.
Can we allow it to happen that one day, not so far away, someone will walk up the street in Jerusalem and lament the nation that was? Or that someone, in the not so distant future, will hold a red rose to be placed where once a heart was beating, pumping red, hot blood throughout the world, supplying oxygen to the brain, ensuring a supply of nutrients to the cells and tissues throughout the body. At present we are so blind sighted that by our own actions and doing, we allow the enemy to stub the heart, constrict its flow, ultimately enabling the savage to extract our heart with his hand and shout, like an animal, a victor’s roar:
Jews and Israelis the world over, your journey is over.
June 8, 2009 (first post)
A day following his Cairo Speech, US President Barack Hussein Obama toured Buchenwald Concentration Camp accompanied by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Holocaust survivors Elie Wiesel and Bertrand Herz.
The four entered the camp, now a museum to an era gone by—but must not be forgotten—with a throng of reporters recording their every move and expression. They were given four long, white roses, which they later laid on a metal plate-tombstone on the ground. The perfect photo-op: Each in turn stepped forward, approached the flat inscribed metal plate-tombstone and laid a single rose. Dues were paid; President Obama’s tour had to continue. Six million Jews were unfathomably brutally exterminated only because they were Jews. Did the world learn any lesson? More importantly, did Jews learn any lesson? There are approximately six millions Jews in Israel today, and according to Iran, it is time to eliminate them as well. It seems as if there is no place for the Jewish State, and as stubborn as it may seem to be, it will be extracted, like a tooth, for the greater good and the possible global peace of mind. Then, one day, a white rose can be laid on a tombstone on the ground, in remembrance of a country that once was.
Several months ago, while in Israel, I was walking in Jerusalem toward the President’s Residence. The sun was setting along with a light breeze and the side street leading to the Presidential Residence was quite, not a single soul—bird or human. While walking, I noticed a building that was converted from a residence to a historical foundation memorializing the history of some group. I remember thinking that a day might come and a person like me will be walking in this very same street to notice that the foundation building still exists, but it was expanded along the entire block because it will have to hold the archive record and information of a great country that once was; the Jewish Homeland, the State of Israel.
I hastened my pace, almost running, afraid to be late for my meeting. My inner me knew with increased confidence: Israel must remain, not as a celebrated place to visit but as a viable Jewish State.
Is it time already to lament Israel? It still exists as a vibrant, diverse society, a country like no other around the world. Can the world in fact rid itself of this ‘nuisance’ called Israel? Many now advocate that our world would be a far better place if only Israel had ceased to exist.
The Thief from Bagdad
The proposition of a ‘Two State Solution’ has been in the working since the first half of the last century. “Greater Palestine” under British Mandate was divided into what today are two sovereign states, Israel and Jordan, on both sides of the Jordan River. A generation has arisen that aspires to draw new lines. Each time a line is changed in the slightest–moved, redrawn, or erased altogether--a price must be paid, blood will be spilled.
In a different era, borders were drawn on paper maps using different color markers whose thickness translated in some instances into a very weird geographical reality. Such practice of dividing lands and spheres of influence was commonplace. Take another look at Iraq for instance. Should the Kurds not have their own country, extending from portions of Turkey to Iraq? Cut a slice from Turkey, divide Iraq into three parts, and declare the independence of the Kurds.
Those living side by side in this area struggled. After several unsuccessful attempts by the Arabs to destroy Israel, a wise person arose, Yasser Arafat. Formerly a terrorist with blood of many on his hands, he understood the methodology: Grab whatever you are given, then demand more. He managed to plant a new identity, a dream depicted on maps in textbooks –a world without Israel, a Middle East devoid of Jews. A new creation: the “Palestinian People” and a dream for a “Statehood.”
Arafat was not bashful borrowing from what was never his—the Bible, historical records, archeological artifacts, even olive trees. He borrowed and used the Arabian imagination to embroider the story with beautiful artwork. So beautiful, in fact, that anyone looking at it was mesmerized, forgetting the past, oblivious to facts or reason.
The fantasy and its effects were so potent that even those far away were affected. Not really understanding the culture, background or historical framework, they all started chanting: Statehood. Give The People a Home. Very fast the chanting became a thunder, those few who dared to protest were crumpled under the feet of the multitude, and people were rushing to the mirage in the desert, wanting to satisfy this deadly desire, their craving to see the most beautiful embroidery once again.
There cannot be a Two State Solution in the area today called Israel; it simply cannot exist. The sooner we wake up and recognize this reality, the better everyone will be. Those elements in the Palestinian Authority and Hamas which armed themselves, tooth and nail, will have to be disarmed. The issue is slightly more complicated than simply stopping the armament and the training provided by Western countries. The terrorists use pipes—the ones otherwise needed for plumbing supplies, gardening, agriculture, construction and other daily uses—and turn them into deadly rockets.
A dream of a “State” requires investment in future generations: establishing state institutes, building infrastructure, applying law and order, educating children and youth, not on hatred and incitement; using religion to teach and embed values, such as helping those less fortunate and caring about others, not only oneself, and prohibiting gratifying one’s twisted desire for 72 female virgins awaiting each homicide bomber.
A phantom “Two State Solution” is not the solution, for no one is seriously pursuing building towards it. There is only death and destruction among the camp of the dreamers. They exist for only one goal: to bring about the utter and complete destruction of the State of the Jews.
Marching to the Death Showers
Israel seems to be divided. There are those who strongly believe that parts of Israel must be butchered off and given to the enemy. Then there are those who recognize the only effect of such a move would be to hasten the end, the death of the patient.
The next war will help Israelis wake up to the grim reality that it really does not matter if one is associated with the center-to left party Kadima or the center-to right party of Likud. All are Jews. When a bomb explodes, when a missile hits, when a viral, biological or chemical agent is released, the labels Israelis and Jews like so much to assign become meaningless. Everyone, including Arab-Israelis will all be dead.
Marching to take a shower, stripping of one’s clothes and then entering these large rooms without any windows, waiting for the water flow to start from above, Jewish men and women still held the belief that human beings are, of their own nature, good. No one imagined that the flow could be of Cyclone B. Even the rumors, the stories, the hints fell on deaf ears.
Labels will not matter, and death will greet us. There will be no one to blame but ourselves, as we have heard, but did not want to believe. We have read and listened but refused to comprehend. It is contrary to human nature, and it defies our culture and our ultimate being, to think that people’s fulfillment aspirations may be the utter and complete destruction of another People, of a Nation, of a State.
So we will go on arguing among ourselves in hushed voices what else we can do or give and how can we make the life of the enemy more bearable and how we are those at fault. A few will march in silence, realizing the ill path taken, when the truth dawns on them, the moment of truth reached just before eternity spreads its wings over us.
Can we allow it to happen that one day, not so far away, someone will walk up the street in Jerusalem and lament the nation that was? Or that someone, in the not so distant future, will hold a red rose to be placed where once a heart was beating, pumping red, hot blood throughout the world, supplying oxygen to the brain, ensuring a supply of nutrients to the cells and tissues throughout the body. At present we are so blind sighted that by our own actions and doing, we allow the enemy to stub the heart, constrict its flow, ultimately enabling the savage to extract our heart with his hand and shout, like an animal, a victor’s roar:
Jews and Israelis the world over, your journey is over.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Cabinet Ministers Receive "Outposts Map"
Hillel Fendel
The Knesset Yesha Lobby, formed for the purpose of advancing the cause of the Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria (Yesha), is distributing maps and information on endangered Yesha outposts and neighborhoods to Cabinet ministers and Knesset Members. The Yesha Lobby is headed by MK Dr. Aryeh Eldad (National Union).
Eldad’s office explains, “We are giving out these detailed maps, with explanatory information on the back, to provide deeper information for those who have to make decisions on the Jewish settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria.”
“They can thus see that outposts are not just a booth or temporary structure, but in some cases are dozens of families who have been living in a real community for several years.”
The colorful map lists dozens of neighborhoods, outposts and small communities that have not yet been recognized by the government – thus rendering them “illegal” or “unauthorized.” However, Eldad explains, “many towns that were established before March 2001 [the cut-off date for new outposts, according to the Americans – ed are in a similar status… All that is necessary to make them legal is the signature of the Defense Minister. This signature is held up only because of political reasons…”
Among the some 20 outposts in specific danger of destruction, according to the Defense Ministry list, are Mitzpeh Lachish in western Judea, Havat Gilad in the Shomron, Givat HaRoeh near Shilo, Givat Assaf near Beit El, Givat Sal’it in northeastern Shomron, and Mul Nevo north of the Dead Sea.
The Yesha lobby plans other activities, such as tours for MKs in the field, Knesset committee sessions relating to settlement matters, and a major seminar in the Knesset on the topic of outposts and settlements.
The Knesset Yesha Lobby, formed for the purpose of advancing the cause of the Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria (Yesha), is distributing maps and information on endangered Yesha outposts and neighborhoods to Cabinet ministers and Knesset Members. The Yesha Lobby is headed by MK Dr. Aryeh Eldad (National Union).
Eldad’s office explains, “We are giving out these detailed maps, with explanatory information on the back, to provide deeper information for those who have to make decisions on the Jewish settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria.”
“They can thus see that outposts are not just a booth or temporary structure, but in some cases are dozens of families who have been living in a real community for several years.”
The colorful map lists dozens of neighborhoods, outposts and small communities that have not yet been recognized by the government – thus rendering them “illegal” or “unauthorized.” However, Eldad explains, “many towns that were established before March 2001 [the cut-off date for new outposts, according to the Americans – ed are in a similar status… All that is necessary to make them legal is the signature of the Defense Minister. This signature is held up only because of political reasons…”
Among the some 20 outposts in specific danger of destruction, according to the Defense Ministry list, are Mitzpeh Lachish in western Judea, Havat Gilad in the Shomron, Givat HaRoeh near Shilo, Givat Assaf near Beit El, Givat Sal’it in northeastern Shomron, and Mul Nevo north of the Dead Sea.
The Yesha lobby plans other activities, such as tours for MKs in the field, Knesset committee sessions relating to settlement matters, and a major seminar in the Knesset on the topic of outposts and settlements.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Ben-Eliezer: Let Mubarak lead peace process
Prime Minister Netanyahu faces contrasting pressures ahead of Europe visit: While Labor ministers urge immediate progress in peace process, Likud's Yaalon stresses 'there is no partner' on Palestinian side
Roni Sofer
Likud and Labor ministers exerted contrasting pressures on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday morning ahead of his upcoming trip to Europe. Following reports on the Egyptian president's plan for a "major truce" and progress in the talks for a prisoner exchange deal, Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) said during the weekly cabinet meeting that Hosni Mubarak should be the one to lead and broker the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Prisoner Exchange?
Palestinians predict progress in Shalit deal / Ali Waked
Hamas, PA sources say Israel now willing to consider releasing 200 'heavy' Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captured IDF soldier; Hamas willing to consider their deportation from West Bank, they add
Full story
Ben-Eliezer praised Netanyahu's policy speech last week, but said that its test was in its execution, "because every day passing by is not on our side."
He added that the prime minister must meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak was absent from the cabinet meeting due to a meeting with Mubarak and other Egyptian officials in Cairo.
Mubarak and Barak in Cairo, Sunday morning (Photo: AFP)
The prime minister briefed the ministers on his upcoming trip and meetings with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "We demand a demilitarized (Palestinian) state with no missiles," Netanyahu stressed.
Likud ministers Benny Begin and Moshe Yaalon also voiced their views, which contradicted Ben-Eliezer's demand. "We have no partner on the other side," said Yaalon, and Begin demanded that "we insist on our right for a Jewish state".
Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz (Habayit Hayehudi) said during the meeting that "the demand to recognize the State of Israel as a Jewish state will prevent the Palestinians' 'salami method'."
According to Hershkowitz, "It’s a fact that the State of Israel is the Jewish people's state, but the Palestinians must accept it if they wish to end the conflict."
Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) said that Israel "must find out where the Palestinian are headed – whether to reconciliation and peace or to continued incitement and terror. We must know whether they are seeking two states in order to establish one Palestinian state and one for Hamas, or whether they are willing to accept a Jewish state alongside their own."
On the other side of the table, Labor ministers – headed by Ben-Eliezer, Avishay Braverman and Isaac Herzog – praised the prime minister for accepting the two states for two people principle, but said that progress must be made so that the end result won't be "one state for two people".
The prime ministers PR foreign media advisor, Mark Regev, addressed the talks for a comprehensive agreement on the Gaza border and slammed Hamas, saying that the Palestinian organization was "part of the problem and not part of the solution".
"They are insisting on a radical agenda, and are responsible for a tragedy – both that of the south's residents and of Gaza's residents – and we must not talk to them," Regev said.
Roni Sofer
Likud and Labor ministers exerted contrasting pressures on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday morning ahead of his upcoming trip to Europe. Following reports on the Egyptian president's plan for a "major truce" and progress in the talks for a prisoner exchange deal, Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) said during the weekly cabinet meeting that Hosni Mubarak should be the one to lead and broker the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Prisoner Exchange?
Palestinians predict progress in Shalit deal / Ali Waked
Hamas, PA sources say Israel now willing to consider releasing 200 'heavy' Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captured IDF soldier; Hamas willing to consider their deportation from West Bank, they add
Full story
Ben-Eliezer praised Netanyahu's policy speech last week, but said that its test was in its execution, "because every day passing by is not on our side."
He added that the prime minister must meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak was absent from the cabinet meeting due to a meeting with Mubarak and other Egyptian officials in Cairo.
Mubarak and Barak in Cairo, Sunday morning (Photo: AFP)
The prime minister briefed the ministers on his upcoming trip and meetings with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "We demand a demilitarized (Palestinian) state with no missiles," Netanyahu stressed.
Likud ministers Benny Begin and Moshe Yaalon also voiced their views, which contradicted Ben-Eliezer's demand. "We have no partner on the other side," said Yaalon, and Begin demanded that "we insist on our right for a Jewish state".
Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz (Habayit Hayehudi) said during the meeting that "the demand to recognize the State of Israel as a Jewish state will prevent the Palestinians' 'salami method'."
According to Hershkowitz, "It’s a fact that the State of Israel is the Jewish people's state, but the Palestinians must accept it if they wish to end the conflict."
Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) said that Israel "must find out where the Palestinian are headed – whether to reconciliation and peace or to continued incitement and terror. We must know whether they are seeking two states in order to establish one Palestinian state and one for Hamas, or whether they are willing to accept a Jewish state alongside their own."
On the other side of the table, Labor ministers – headed by Ben-Eliezer, Avishay Braverman and Isaac Herzog – praised the prime minister for accepting the two states for two people principle, but said that progress must be made so that the end result won't be "one state for two people".
The prime ministers PR foreign media advisor, Mark Regev, addressed the talks for a comprehensive agreement on the Gaza border and slammed Hamas, saying that the Palestinian organization was "part of the problem and not part of the solution".
"They are insisting on a radical agenda, and are responsible for a tragedy – both that of the south's residents and of Gaza's residents – and we must not talk to them," Regev said.
'At least 19 killed by gov't forces in Iran clashes Saturday'
SABINA AMIDI
THE JERUSALEM POST
At least 19 people were killed by gunfire from government forces during the demonstrations in Teheran, Shiraz and Isfehan on Saturday, CNN reported based on eyewitness accounts of medical officials in Teheran's hospitals.
CNN also quoted unconfirmed reports that put the actual death toll at 150. A week of massive street protests over the results of Iran's presidential elections escalated into open defiance of the entire regime on Saturday, when thousands took to the streets of Teheran chanting "Death to the Dictatorship."
Ignoring the Friday warning by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to call off the protests and accept the official contention that incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the June 12 elections, Reformist opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi insistently renewed his demand that the vote be annulled, and indicated that he was prepared for "martyrdom" should he lose his life as a consequence of his and his supporters' defiance.
"We have received word from Mousavi that if he is arrested or disappears, the people should go out on a nationwide strike," one source in Teheran told this correspondent, and expressed the conviction that the former prime minister's life was now in danger.
Another Iranian source, in comments reported by Reuters, said Mousavi had given a public address in southwestern Teheran in which he "said he was ready for martyrdom and that he would continue his path."
Contacts in Teheran estimated that 2,000 to 3,000 had gathered in Teheran last night, even though Mousavi was telling supporters to stay at home for the time being, and were facing police who beat them and fired tear gas and water cannons at them. It was not clear if police were firing live ammunition, although voices audible in video footage from Teheran claimed live bullets were being fired. There were reports of several dozen casualties, and the video clips showed several protesters who appeared to be badly hurt. "They are killing my brothers," one man is heard crying in footage apparently filmed in Teheran on Saturday.
Latest reports shortly before press time said protesters had set fire to a gas station in the capital.
There were also reports of street battles in other Iranian cities, clashes at universities and sit-ins at mosques.
"We can see the smoke and the helicopters from our house," said a source in Teheran. "They have closed down all the roads, trapping the people, who are being bombarded."
People were chanting "Allah Akbar" and "We will kill those who kill our brothers" from their windows, balconies, and rooftops, he said.
Most of Mousavi's supporters "are not leaving our homes," he went on.
"God help those people [who have gone out] in Freedom Square. The last we heard, helicopters are pouring boiling hot water on the people," said another source. His account could not be confirmed, but other reports also spoke of boiling water being dropped from the helicopters, and of an undefined "acid" being sprayed at demonstrators by security forces on the streets. "Hospitals are overflowing and the embassies in Teheran have left their doors open to provide a haven for the injured for sanctuary," the source added.
Iran's English-language state TV said that a suicide bombing at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, south of Teheran, had killed one person - the bomber - and wounded eight. But the report could be not independently evaluated due to government restrictions on journalists.
Some sources in Teheran said they believed the bombing was either a fabrication or was staged by the regime, in a bid to stir outrage among Iranians who deeply revere the Shi'ite cleric who led the 1979 revolution that toppled the US-backed shah.
"The bombing at the mausoleum never happened," said one contact. "If it had, the state media would show the damage. There is no proof… The regime is going to use this as a pretext to go after Mousavi."
In Washington, President Barack Obama on Saturday challenged Iran's government to halt the "violent and unjust" crackdown on dissenters, using his bluntest language yet to condemn Teheran's post-election response.
"We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people," Obama said in a written statement. "The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights."
In a letter Saturday to Iran's Guardian Council, which investigates voting fraud allegations, Mousavi said some ballot boxes had been sealed before voting began in the disputed elections. He also said thousands of his representatives had been expelled from polling stations and some mobile polling stations had boxes filled with fake ballots.
"The Iranian nation will not believe this unjust and illegal" act, Mousavi said in the letter, which was posted on one of his official Web sites.
Mousavi did not make clear in the letter whether he endorsed the ongoing street protests in the wake of Khamenei's ominous demand Friday that opposition leaders put an end to the rallies or be held responsible for "the bloodshed, the violence and rioting" to come.
Khamenei's statement during Friday prayers effectively closed the door to Mousavi's demand for a new election.
Eyewitnesses said thousands of police and plainclothes militia members filled the streets Saturday, blocking protesters from gathering on the main thoroughfare running east from Revolution Square to Freedom Square.
English-language state TV confirmed that police used batons and other non-lethal weapons against what it called unauthorized demonstrations.
Amateur video showed dozens of Iranians running down a street after police fired tear gas. Shouts of "Allahu Akbar!" could be heard on the video, which could not be independently verified.
Helicopters hovered overhead, ambulances raced through the streets and black smoke rose over the city.
The witnesses told The Associated Press that between 50 and 60 protesters were hospitalized after beatings by police and pro-government militia. People could be seen dragging away comrades bloodied by baton strikes.
Teheran University, in the heart of downtown Teheran, was cordoned off by police and militia while students inside the university chanted "Death to the dictator!" witnesses said.
Shouts of "Viva Mousavi!" also could be heard. Witnesses said protesters wore black as a symbol of mourning for the dead and the allegedly stolen election, with wristbands in green, the emblem of Mousavi's self-described "Green Wave" movement.
All witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared government reprisals for speaking with the press. Iranian authorities have placed strict limits on the ability of foreign media to cover recent events, banning reporting from the street and allowing only phone interviews and information from officials sources such as state TV.
Police clashed with protesters around Teheran immediately after the presidential election. Gunfire from a militia compound left at least seven dead, with some reports putting the death toll above 30.
"I think the regime has taken an enormous risk in confronting this situation in the manner that they have," said Mehrdad Khonsari, a consultant to the London-based Center for Arab and Iranian Studies.
"Now they'll have to hold their ground and hope that people don't keep coming back. But history has taught us that people in these situations lose their initial sense of fear and become emboldened by brutality," he said.
Mousavi and the two other candidates who ran against Ahmadinejad had been invited to meet with Iran's Guardian Council, an unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts close to Khamenei that oversees elections. Its spokesman told state TV that Mousavi and the reformist candidate Mahdi Karroubi did not attend.
The council has said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities but Mousavi's supporters did not withdraw his demands for a new election.
Both houses of the US Congress approved a resolution on Friday condemning "the ongoing violence" by the Iranian government and its suppression of the Internet and cell phones.
The government has blocked Web sites such as BBC Farsi, Facebook, Twitter and several pro-Mousavi sites that are conduits for Iranians to tell the world about protests and violence.
Text messaging has not been working normally for many days, and cell phone service in Teheran is frequently down.
In an interview taped Friday with CBS, Obama said he is very concerned by the "tenor and tone" of Khamenei's comments. He also said that how Iran's leaders "approach and deal with people who are, through peaceful means, trying to be heard" will signal "what Iran is and is not."
A spokesman for Mousavi said Friday the opposition leader was not under arrest but was not allowed to speak to journalists or stand at a microphone at rallies. Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf told the AP from Paris it was even becoming difficult to reach people close to Mousavi. He said he had not heard from Mousavi's camp since Khamenei's address.
In his speech Friday, Khamenei blamed the United States, Britain and "other enemies" for fomenting unrest. He said Iran would not see a second revolution like those that transformed the countries of the former Soviet Union.
He said the election outcome was a vindication of the Islamic Republic and an earthquake for its enemies. "If the people did not trust in the system they would not participate in it," he said. "Iran's enemies are targeting the beliefs and trust of the people."
He said: "These divisions come from the Zionist radio and the bad British radio trying to change the meaning of the election."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other European Union leaders expressed dismay over the threat of a crackdown. The British Foreign Office told Iran's charge d'affairs in London that Khamenei's comments were "unacceptable and had no basis in fact," a spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with policy.
Obama has sought a measured reaction to avoid being drawn in as a meddler in Iranian affairs, but his comments have grown more pointed as the clashes intensified.
"Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away," the president said on Saturday, recalling a theme from the speech he gave in Cairo this month.
"The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government," Obama said. "If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion."
Jpost.com staff contributed to this report
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1245184879516&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
THE JERUSALEM POST
At least 19 people were killed by gunfire from government forces during the demonstrations in Teheran, Shiraz and Isfehan on Saturday, CNN reported based on eyewitness accounts of medical officials in Teheran's hospitals.
CNN also quoted unconfirmed reports that put the actual death toll at 150. A week of massive street protests over the results of Iran's presidential elections escalated into open defiance of the entire regime on Saturday, when thousands took to the streets of Teheran chanting "Death to the Dictatorship."
Ignoring the Friday warning by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to call off the protests and accept the official contention that incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the June 12 elections, Reformist opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi insistently renewed his demand that the vote be annulled, and indicated that he was prepared for "martyrdom" should he lose his life as a consequence of his and his supporters' defiance.
"We have received word from Mousavi that if he is arrested or disappears, the people should go out on a nationwide strike," one source in Teheran told this correspondent, and expressed the conviction that the former prime minister's life was now in danger.
Another Iranian source, in comments reported by Reuters, said Mousavi had given a public address in southwestern Teheran in which he "said he was ready for martyrdom and that he would continue his path."
Contacts in Teheran estimated that 2,000 to 3,000 had gathered in Teheran last night, even though Mousavi was telling supporters to stay at home for the time being, and were facing police who beat them and fired tear gas and water cannons at them. It was not clear if police were firing live ammunition, although voices audible in video footage from Teheran claimed live bullets were being fired. There were reports of several dozen casualties, and the video clips showed several protesters who appeared to be badly hurt. "They are killing my brothers," one man is heard crying in footage apparently filmed in Teheran on Saturday.
Latest reports shortly before press time said protesters had set fire to a gas station in the capital.
There were also reports of street battles in other Iranian cities, clashes at universities and sit-ins at mosques.
"We can see the smoke and the helicopters from our house," said a source in Teheran. "They have closed down all the roads, trapping the people, who are being bombarded."
People were chanting "Allah Akbar" and "We will kill those who kill our brothers" from their windows, balconies, and rooftops, he said.
Most of Mousavi's supporters "are not leaving our homes," he went on.
"God help those people [who have gone out] in Freedom Square. The last we heard, helicopters are pouring boiling hot water on the people," said another source. His account could not be confirmed, but other reports also spoke of boiling water being dropped from the helicopters, and of an undefined "acid" being sprayed at demonstrators by security forces on the streets. "Hospitals are overflowing and the embassies in Teheran have left their doors open to provide a haven for the injured for sanctuary," the source added.
Iran's English-language state TV said that a suicide bombing at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, south of Teheran, had killed one person - the bomber - and wounded eight. But the report could be not independently evaluated due to government restrictions on journalists.
Some sources in Teheran said they believed the bombing was either a fabrication or was staged by the regime, in a bid to stir outrage among Iranians who deeply revere the Shi'ite cleric who led the 1979 revolution that toppled the US-backed shah.
"The bombing at the mausoleum never happened," said one contact. "If it had, the state media would show the damage. There is no proof… The regime is going to use this as a pretext to go after Mousavi."
In Washington, President Barack Obama on Saturday challenged Iran's government to halt the "violent and unjust" crackdown on dissenters, using his bluntest language yet to condemn Teheran's post-election response.
"We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people," Obama said in a written statement. "The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights."
In a letter Saturday to Iran's Guardian Council, which investigates voting fraud allegations, Mousavi said some ballot boxes had been sealed before voting began in the disputed elections. He also said thousands of his representatives had been expelled from polling stations and some mobile polling stations had boxes filled with fake ballots.
"The Iranian nation will not believe this unjust and illegal" act, Mousavi said in the letter, which was posted on one of his official Web sites.
Mousavi did not make clear in the letter whether he endorsed the ongoing street protests in the wake of Khamenei's ominous demand Friday that opposition leaders put an end to the rallies or be held responsible for "the bloodshed, the violence and rioting" to come.
Khamenei's statement during Friday prayers effectively closed the door to Mousavi's demand for a new election.
Eyewitnesses said thousands of police and plainclothes militia members filled the streets Saturday, blocking protesters from gathering on the main thoroughfare running east from Revolution Square to Freedom Square.
English-language state TV confirmed that police used batons and other non-lethal weapons against what it called unauthorized demonstrations.
Amateur video showed dozens of Iranians running down a street after police fired tear gas. Shouts of "Allahu Akbar!" could be heard on the video, which could not be independently verified.
Helicopters hovered overhead, ambulances raced through the streets and black smoke rose over the city.
The witnesses told The Associated Press that between 50 and 60 protesters were hospitalized after beatings by police and pro-government militia. People could be seen dragging away comrades bloodied by baton strikes.
Teheran University, in the heart of downtown Teheran, was cordoned off by police and militia while students inside the university chanted "Death to the dictator!" witnesses said.
Shouts of "Viva Mousavi!" also could be heard. Witnesses said protesters wore black as a symbol of mourning for the dead and the allegedly stolen election, with wristbands in green, the emblem of Mousavi's self-described "Green Wave" movement.
All witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared government reprisals for speaking with the press. Iranian authorities have placed strict limits on the ability of foreign media to cover recent events, banning reporting from the street and allowing only phone interviews and information from officials sources such as state TV.
Police clashed with protesters around Teheran immediately after the presidential election. Gunfire from a militia compound left at least seven dead, with some reports putting the death toll above 30.
"I think the regime has taken an enormous risk in confronting this situation in the manner that they have," said Mehrdad Khonsari, a consultant to the London-based Center for Arab and Iranian Studies.
"Now they'll have to hold their ground and hope that people don't keep coming back. But history has taught us that people in these situations lose their initial sense of fear and become emboldened by brutality," he said.
Mousavi and the two other candidates who ran against Ahmadinejad had been invited to meet with Iran's Guardian Council, an unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts close to Khamenei that oversees elections. Its spokesman told state TV that Mousavi and the reformist candidate Mahdi Karroubi did not attend.
The council has said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities but Mousavi's supporters did not withdraw his demands for a new election.
Both houses of the US Congress approved a resolution on Friday condemning "the ongoing violence" by the Iranian government and its suppression of the Internet and cell phones.
The government has blocked Web sites such as BBC Farsi, Facebook, Twitter and several pro-Mousavi sites that are conduits for Iranians to tell the world about protests and violence.
Text messaging has not been working normally for many days, and cell phone service in Teheran is frequently down.
In an interview taped Friday with CBS, Obama said he is very concerned by the "tenor and tone" of Khamenei's comments. He also said that how Iran's leaders "approach and deal with people who are, through peaceful means, trying to be heard" will signal "what Iran is and is not."
A spokesman for Mousavi said Friday the opposition leader was not under arrest but was not allowed to speak to journalists or stand at a microphone at rallies. Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf told the AP from Paris it was even becoming difficult to reach people close to Mousavi. He said he had not heard from Mousavi's camp since Khamenei's address.
In his speech Friday, Khamenei blamed the United States, Britain and "other enemies" for fomenting unrest. He said Iran would not see a second revolution like those that transformed the countries of the former Soviet Union.
He said the election outcome was a vindication of the Islamic Republic and an earthquake for its enemies. "If the people did not trust in the system they would not participate in it," he said. "Iran's enemies are targeting the beliefs and trust of the people."
He said: "These divisions come from the Zionist radio and the bad British radio trying to change the meaning of the election."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other European Union leaders expressed dismay over the threat of a crackdown. The British Foreign Office told Iran's charge d'affairs in London that Khamenei's comments were "unacceptable and had no basis in fact," a spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with policy.
Obama has sought a measured reaction to avoid being drawn in as a meddler in Iranian affairs, but his comments have grown more pointed as the clashes intensified.
"Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away," the president said on Saturday, recalling a theme from the speech he gave in Cairo this month.
"The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government," Obama said. "If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion."
Jpost.com staff contributed to this report
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1245184879516&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
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