Bank of Israel survey reveals Israeli Arabs retirement age lower than in European, Arab countries. One reason is high rate of Arabs employed in jobs requiring physical fitness
Ynet
Only 20% of Arab women in Israel work, while Arab men retire from the workforce at the age of 40 to 44, according to a new study on the participation rate of Israel's Arabs in the workforce. The survey was conducted by Prof. Eran Yashiv and Nitza Kasir of the Bank of Israel's Research Department. The researchers note that these two patterns cannot be explained by the regular factors – such as age, education, marital status, number of children and the income of the other family members.
According to the researchers, an important factor explaining Arabs' retirement from the workforce at a relatively early age is the high rate of Arabs employed in professions requiring physical fitness.
In light of the fact that physical ability declines with age, the participation in these professions drops. The fact that many foreign workers are employed in Israel allows employers to replace the Arab workers whose physical fitness has declined with other laborers.
The researchers also note that Arab men have the option to receive an income from various governmental aid organizations, which allows them to retire once their physical abilities diminish. This is joined by characteristic influences of the Arab society, including the common phenomenon of children supporting their parents from an early age.
Working less in southern Israel
The rest of the characteristic influencing the participation of Arab men in the workforce are similar to those usually found in research literature, including the positive link between the education level and the rate of participation and the negative affect of residing in the south.
Compared to the employment of Jews and compared to international employment rates, Arab workers' early retirement is unusual. "Among the Jews in Israel, among the Palestinians, in Western economies and in economies in Muslim and Arab countries, one can see the 'classic' participation profile over life which is in the shape of a hump – going up, stabilizing and falling throughout life," the researchers explain.
"The drop in the employment of men in Europe begins after the ages of 50 to 54, while in the US there is a more gradual drop after the ages of 55 to 59. Among Israeli Arabs the hump is shorter and sharper, both in relation to Palestinian men in the territories and to other Arab and Muslim countries."
Cultural influences
As for the employment of Arab women, the study found a big variance in the participation rate, related to differences between "modern" and "traditional" women in terms of education, marital status, number of children and different skills, like English and computers.
The researchers noted that they had found a dichotomy in the employment patterns of Arab women: "Traditional" women hardly take part in the labor market, which explains the low participation rate on an international level.
There is a significant rate of "modern" women taking part in the labor market, which explains the rise in the participation level over time alongside the rise in education rates and other cultural changes.
"There is a finding that women's participation rates are much different than what is common in Western countries and among Jewish women in Israel, and are not significantly different than the rates in Muslim countries. This finding reinforces the conclusion that this is the result of cultural influences."
The researchers note that these findings stress the need for a governmental policy which will help raise women's participation levels and reduce men's early retirement among Israeli Arabs, particularly in light of the negative ramifications of the participation patterns on the Israeli Arab society's social-economic situation.
"There is room to consider a variety of policy moves to increase Arabs' participation in the workforce," the researchers state, including "reaching a wider occupation dispersal of the Arab men, in order to prevent the over-concentration in physical professions, in which retirement is early – increasing the resources for elementary and post-primary education and higher education."
Other moves include "aiding in retraining and career change ahead of the retirement from physical professions and working to remove obstacles in the demand for skilled workers among Arabs; encouraging the employment of Israeli Arabs instead of foreign workers; encouraging the employment of women through education by increasing the resources for education, as well as subsidizing daycare centers; encouraging the physical accessibility of workplaces by investing in a suitable transportation infrastructure and providing transportation to the workplace."
Thursday, November 19, 2009
US-Israel relations: Is there a crisis?
Naama Lanir
In wake of recent controversy between Jerusalem, Washington over construction in Jerusalem nieghborhood, former Israeli ambassadors say issue over-hyped by media. Expert on US foreign policy notes Obama administration more demanding compared with former governments The charged relationship between US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been topped with open outrage by the US administration over construction plans in Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood. Does this unprecedented protest point to a serious crisis with Washington?
Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Zalman Shoval doesn't seem to think so. "In the eyes of the Israeli media we are supposedly going from one crisis to the other, week by week," he said, but admitted that "the demand not to build in Gilo seems strange and even bizarre since it has been inhabited for 30 years and over.
French Perspective
Kouchner: Gilo construction won’t necessarily hinder peace talks / Attila Somfalvi
Visiting French FM says widely criticized Israeli plan to build hundreds of housing units in Jerusalem neighborhood 'not a political decision, should not be obstacle to resuming peace talks.' Adds: We'll oppose unilateral Palestinian statehood declaration
Full story
"It's not east Jerusalem – Arabs have never lived in Gilo and its houses weren't built on private Arab land," he explained.
Shoval offered two possible explanations to the American response. "Perhaps they confused the Gilo issue with the planning of a new Israeli neighborhood between Gilo and Beit Jala. Overall, when you sit in Washington and look at the maps it's hard to tell the difference.
"The other reason could be that the US administration wants to encourage Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) and is also trying to cover up Hillary Clinton's various statements, maybe they were trying to create a balance."
Shoval said that the Americans now admit, whether in public or in confidence, that their initial insistence of viewing the settlement issue as a central focal point of the peace process was a mistake.
'Arabs have never lived in Gilo' (Photo: Reuters)
Shoval, who acted as ambassador on two terms at the beginning and the end of the 1990's, noted that the Americans have raised the demand to stop building in the territories many times, but never in a concrete way. "The Obama administration is different, and that stems both from the change in the US's status in the world and the attempts to negotiate with difficult opponents such as North Korea and Iran."
However, relations between Israel and the US have remained strong, according to the former ambassador who pointed to the Congress' support of Israel. "My estimate is that this support won't wane – just the opposite."
'Israel doesn't take orders'
Moshe Arens, who acted as Israel's ambassador to Washington in the early 1980's, also believes there is no cause for serious concern. "Crisis is too big of a word. It's not a crisis but a difference of opinion that we have shared in the past and will share in the future."
The only difference, Arens noted, was the media. "There has been a change with the Obama administration, both in tone and in music. Perhaps the demand has always existed in internal conversations, but it has not prompted such public resonance as it does today." Arens further claimed that Israel is not one to receive orders and noted that it was legitimate to reject the American administration's demands.
On the other end of the fence stands Professor Michal Pomerantz, an expert on international law and US foreign policy in the Hebrew University. Pomerantz stressed the precedent that the construction in Jerusalem now poses.
"The Jerusalem issue had not caused crises in the past, since there were no demands regarding Jerusalem. It has never existed in any other administration despite some fluctuations on the matter. The Obama administration is more demanding."
In respect to the future of the relations, Prof. Pomerantz could not predict US considerations. "They're also fluctuating. On the one hand their direction was to come closer to the Palestinian viewpoint. On the other hand, Israeli public opinion has experienced some kind of disillusionment, accepting that the US administration was becoming more hostile."
In wake of recent controversy between Jerusalem, Washington over construction in Jerusalem nieghborhood, former Israeli ambassadors say issue over-hyped by media. Expert on US foreign policy notes Obama administration more demanding compared with former governments The charged relationship between US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been topped with open outrage by the US administration over construction plans in Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood. Does this unprecedented protest point to a serious crisis with Washington?
Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Zalman Shoval doesn't seem to think so. "In the eyes of the Israeli media we are supposedly going from one crisis to the other, week by week," he said, but admitted that "the demand not to build in Gilo seems strange and even bizarre since it has been inhabited for 30 years and over.
French Perspective
Kouchner: Gilo construction won’t necessarily hinder peace talks / Attila Somfalvi
Visiting French FM says widely criticized Israeli plan to build hundreds of housing units in Jerusalem neighborhood 'not a political decision, should not be obstacle to resuming peace talks.' Adds: We'll oppose unilateral Palestinian statehood declaration
Full story
"It's not east Jerusalem – Arabs have never lived in Gilo and its houses weren't built on private Arab land," he explained.
Shoval offered two possible explanations to the American response. "Perhaps they confused the Gilo issue with the planning of a new Israeli neighborhood between Gilo and Beit Jala. Overall, when you sit in Washington and look at the maps it's hard to tell the difference.
"The other reason could be that the US administration wants to encourage Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) and is also trying to cover up Hillary Clinton's various statements, maybe they were trying to create a balance."
Shoval said that the Americans now admit, whether in public or in confidence, that their initial insistence of viewing the settlement issue as a central focal point of the peace process was a mistake.
'Arabs have never lived in Gilo' (Photo: Reuters)
Shoval, who acted as ambassador on two terms at the beginning and the end of the 1990's, noted that the Americans have raised the demand to stop building in the territories many times, but never in a concrete way. "The Obama administration is different, and that stems both from the change in the US's status in the world and the attempts to negotiate with difficult opponents such as North Korea and Iran."
However, relations between Israel and the US have remained strong, according to the former ambassador who pointed to the Congress' support of Israel. "My estimate is that this support won't wane – just the opposite."
'Israel doesn't take orders'
Moshe Arens, who acted as Israel's ambassador to Washington in the early 1980's, also believes there is no cause for serious concern. "Crisis is too big of a word. It's not a crisis but a difference of opinion that we have shared in the past and will share in the future."
The only difference, Arens noted, was the media. "There has been a change with the Obama administration, both in tone and in music. Perhaps the demand has always existed in internal conversations, but it has not prompted such public resonance as it does today." Arens further claimed that Israel is not one to receive orders and noted that it was legitimate to reject the American administration's demands.
On the other end of the fence stands Professor Michal Pomerantz, an expert on international law and US foreign policy in the Hebrew University. Pomerantz stressed the precedent that the construction in Jerusalem now poses.
"The Jerusalem issue had not caused crises in the past, since there were no demands regarding Jerusalem. It has never existed in any other administration despite some fluctuations on the matter. The Obama administration is more demanding."
In respect to the future of the relations, Prof. Pomerantz could not predict US considerations. "They're also fluctuating. On the one hand their direction was to come closer to the Palestinian viewpoint. On the other hand, Israeli public opinion has experienced some kind of disillusionment, accepting that the US administration was becoming more hostile."
FM Liberman meets with French FM Kouchner
(Communicated by the Foreign Minister's Bureau)
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman met this afternoon (Wednesday 18 November 2009) with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in Jerusalem. The two ministers discussed bilateral and regional issues, including Iran, Syria, Lebanon and the situation with the Palestinians. FM Liberman stated that the Gilo neighborhood is an integral part of Jerusalem and Israel, and is in that respect identical to Tel Aviv and Herzliya. FM Liberman added that all the procedures required for issuing building permits in Gilo are carried out in accordance with the law by the planning and building committee, and the government does not intend to intervene in the process, which strictly adheres to the procedural regulations of the State of Israel.
FM Liberman thanked FM Kouchner for France's fundamental and consistent position regarding the necessity of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Comment: President Obama, who has said another government should not dictate a country's security, also re-stated how the building in the settlements must stop. Perhaps he did not get the "memo" that indicated no new building permits have been offered outside of Israel proper-hmm, Mr. President failed to do your homework?
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman met this afternoon (Wednesday 18 November 2009) with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in Jerusalem. The two ministers discussed bilateral and regional issues, including Iran, Syria, Lebanon and the situation with the Palestinians. FM Liberman stated that the Gilo neighborhood is an integral part of Jerusalem and Israel, and is in that respect identical to Tel Aviv and Herzliya. FM Liberman added that all the procedures required for issuing building permits in Gilo are carried out in accordance with the law by the planning and building committee, and the government does not intend to intervene in the process, which strictly adheres to the procedural regulations of the State of Israel.
FM Liberman thanked FM Kouchner for France's fundamental and consistent position regarding the necessity of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Comment: President Obama, who has said another government should not dictate a country's security, also re-stated how the building in the settlements must stop. Perhaps he did not get the "memo" that indicated no new building permits have been offered outside of Israel proper-hmm, Mr. President failed to do your homework?
"Slip-sliding in the PA"
No standing firm on the ground for these guys. With what I suppose they imagine to be nimble steps, they move this way and that. Except that their steps, seen from here, are shamefully clumsy.
Today Saeb Erekat, PA negotiator, declared that Israel was twisting Palestinian words, as they never said they were going to declare a state unilaterally. No? You could have fooled me.
All they want, he explained, is to preserve the two-state solution, as one state is not an option. And, since negotiations are stalemated (through no fault of theirs, of course), they want the Security Council to endorse the two-state solution, with the border of the new Palestinian state set at the Green (pre-'67) Line.
This strikes me as patently ridiculous. Every mention within the international community of the two-state solution or anything akin to it -- Oslo, which was formally signed, the informally agreed-to Road Map, etc., specifies that the details must be determined via negotiations.
Even SC Resolution 242, which doesn't even mention Palestinians, never mind address a "two-state solution," says Israel's borders must be determined via negotiations.
And let's look back even further than this: When Israel signed an armistice agreement with Jordan in 1949, it stated explicitly that the armistice line that was being established (which is the Green Line) would not prejudice negotiations in the future to determine the final border for Israel. The Green Line wasn't it.
~~~~~~~~~~
At least one Israeli government source is cited as saying that the statement by Erekat is an effort to backtrack after it became apparent that the EU and the US were not supportive of a unilaterally declared state. Slip-sliding...
But I'm seeing something else, as well: "One state is not an option..."
Yet not long ago leaders in the PA were saying that if the negotiations weren't going to progress, it was time to think about one state. Of course, in voicing this threat, they were envisioning a "bi-national state" that would render it impossible for Israel to be a Jewish state -- that would, ultimately, be Arab/Muslim in nature.
But then matters shifted. WE said, well, if negotiations aren't going to progress, and there are going to be unilateral declarations from the PA, we might unilaterally move to assume full sovereignty over significant parts of Judea and Samaria. That would make the bulk of Judea and Samaria, which the Palestinians covet, very Jewish indeed, and block the very possibility of forming a viable Palestinian state.
So they, slip-sliding, said, uh oh, let's reverse tactics.
What we learn from this is the value of making offensive moves and not appeasing.
~~~~~~~~~~
There might have been some advantage to the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, however.
MK Uri Ariel, of the right wing Ihud Leumi (National Union), is one of those who sees it this way:
"I pray for Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, to declare a state unilaterally. That is the only way we can finally annul the wretched Oslo accord, which exacted a price in blood and brought the PLO terrorists into the state of Israel.
“A statement of this nature means that the government will have no choice but to annex all of the communities in Judea and Samaria. In practice, it will have to annex the entire region and formally turn it into a part of the state of Israel.”
Everything is so much in flux, it's difficult to predict what will come next. But it remains extremely unlikely that we'll extend sovereignty over even parts of Judea and Samaria except in response to some PA stance that essentially voids Oslo. More's the pity.
At very least there has been a paradigm shift of sorts -- as Israel is making it increasingly clear that return to the Green Line is not an option.
~~~~~~~~~~
And, as the PA leaders continue to slip-slide, we must not forget the option of "armed resistance," which they maintain is their right. This past August, Fatah (the major constituent party of the PA) held a congress, its first in 20 years. This provided the party with an opportunity to genuinely moderate, by adjusting its constitution to eliminate the call for violence. That, however, is not what happened. They continue to embrace this option.
~~~~~~~~~~
And it happens that I see the following news item as having a connection to their embrace of this option:
The PA is calling an international conference, which will be attended by representatives of such countries as Spain, Canada, Britain, Ireland, South Africa, and Sweden who are involved in international legal systems.
A major goal they intend to advance in the course of the conference: Securing a change in the status of their terrorists in Israeli prisons to "prisoners of war."
According to Israel National News, this will enable them to secure more "rights" for the prisoners under the Geneva Conventions. But frankly I find it hard to believe that it would be possible to provide them with any more rights. As it is, I'm ashamed that these terrorists are treated as well as they are. They not only can have family visitations, but also conjugal rights. And they can actually earn a degree from an Israeli university while sitting in our prisons.
I would suggest the possibility that what they really want is to redefine terrorism down. Terrorism, what terrorism? Our brave soldiers are merely engaging in "resistance against the occupation," which is their right under international law. Watch and see.
~~~~~~~~~~
Sources in the Netanyahu government are claiming that there is no crisis with the US over our building in Gilo. Although surprised at the intensity of the US response (with the US saying it is "dismayed" about this), these sources maintain that it is understood that there will be no building freeze in Jerusalem. This reaction, they say, is a show for PA consumption.
I'm not sure if this take is quite accurate. Obama has actually given an interview to Fox news, in which he criticized the plans to build in Gilo, saying this makes it more difficult to re-start negotiations and "embitters" the Palestinians. Embitters? Give me a break.
~~~~~~~~~~
A question occurs to me here:
The statement about how it's understood that there is no freeze in Jerusalem makes it clear that we are abiding by some informal and very quiet agreement regarding a freeze at least in major settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria (whatever the parameters with regard to completing units for which tenders have already been issued). This was supposed to be done to make the PA happy, so negotiations could begin. Obviously, Obama is still hoping -- oi! is he hoping -- this will happen. But if the PA is intransigent, and there are no negotiations, precisely how long do we wait before we say the deal is off? This is the danger inherent in these open-ended arrangements.
~~~~~~~~~~
The articles about Fort Hood keep coming, and just when I think I've read enough, one appears that is significant enough to merit being shared. (Thanks, Dick B)
This powerful piece has a significantly different tone because it is written by an ex-army man. Lieutenant Colonel Allen B West (US Army, Ret) was actually a Battalion Commander at Fort Hood and is now running for Congress in FL.
westimage2
He wrote:
"...A military installation, whether it is Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, or Coast Guard, is supposed to be a safe sanctuary for our Warriors and their families. It is intended to provide a home whereby our "Band of Brothers and Sisters" can find solace and bond beyond just the foxhole, but as family units.
"A military installation is supposed to be a place where our Warriors train for war, to serve and protect our Nation.
"On Thursday, 5 November 2009 Ft Hood became a part of the battlefield in the war against Islamic totalitarianism and state sponsored terrorism.
"There may be those who feel threatened by my words and would even recommend they not be uttered. To those individuals I say step aside because now is not the time for cowardice. Our Country has become so paralyzed by political correctness that we have allowed a vile and determined enemy to breach what should be the safest place in America, an Army post.
"...Saudi Arabia is sponsoring radical Imams who enter into our prisons and convert young men to a virulent Wahabbist ideology….one resulting in four individuals wanting to destroy synagogues in New York with plastic explosives. Thank God the explosives were dummy. They are sponsoring textbooks which present Islamic-centric revisionist history in our schools.
"We must recognize that there is an urgent need to separate the theo-political radical Islamic ideology out of our American society. We must begin to demand surveillance of suspected Imams and mosques that are spreading hate and preaching the overthrow of our Constitutional Republic……that speech is not protected under First Amendment, it is sedition and, if done by an American, treason.
"There should not be some 30 Islamic terrorist training camps in America. That has nothing to do with First Amendment Freedom of Religion. The Saudis are not our friends and any American political figure who believes such is delusional.
"When tolerance becomes a one way street it certainly leads to cultural suicide. We are on that street. Liberals cannot be trusted to defend our Republic, because their sympathies obviously lie with their perceived victim, Major Nidal Malik Hasan.
"I make no apologies for these words, and anyone angered by them, please, go to Ft Hood and look into the eyes of the real victims. The tragedy at Ft Hood Texas did not have to happen. Consider now the feelings of those there and on every military installation in the world. Consider the feelings of the Warriors deployed into combat zones who now are concerned that their loved ones at home are in a combat zone.
"Ft Hood suffered an Islamic jihadist attack, stop the denial, and realize a simple point.
"The reality of your enemy must become your own."
http://thesilentmajority.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/%E2%80%9Ctragedy-at-ft-hood%E2%80%9D-from-lt-col-allen-b-west-us-army-ret/
Share this man's words broadly, my friends.
~~~~~~~~~~
"The Good News Corner"
From many places on the earth, there are Jews who come home to Israel. In some cases, individuals whose ancestors were Jews come here to reclaim their heritage and join with us.
See this video of descendants of the Jews of Kaifeng, China, come to Israel to re-connect with their Jewish roots and convert formally to Judaism.
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=edhtdoPukk0 (Thanks, Cheryl)
~~~~~~~~~~
see my website www.ArlenefromIsrael.info
Today Saeb Erekat, PA negotiator, declared that Israel was twisting Palestinian words, as they never said they were going to declare a state unilaterally. No? You could have fooled me.
All they want, he explained, is to preserve the two-state solution, as one state is not an option. And, since negotiations are stalemated (through no fault of theirs, of course), they want the Security Council to endorse the two-state solution, with the border of the new Palestinian state set at the Green (pre-'67) Line.
This strikes me as patently ridiculous. Every mention within the international community of the two-state solution or anything akin to it -- Oslo, which was formally signed, the informally agreed-to Road Map, etc., specifies that the details must be determined via negotiations.
Even SC Resolution 242, which doesn't even mention Palestinians, never mind address a "two-state solution," says Israel's borders must be determined via negotiations.
And let's look back even further than this: When Israel signed an armistice agreement with Jordan in 1949, it stated explicitly that the armistice line that was being established (which is the Green Line) would not prejudice negotiations in the future to determine the final border for Israel. The Green Line wasn't it.
~~~~~~~~~~
At least one Israeli government source is cited as saying that the statement by Erekat is an effort to backtrack after it became apparent that the EU and the US were not supportive of a unilaterally declared state. Slip-sliding...
But I'm seeing something else, as well: "One state is not an option..."
Yet not long ago leaders in the PA were saying that if the negotiations weren't going to progress, it was time to think about one state. Of course, in voicing this threat, they were envisioning a "bi-national state" that would render it impossible for Israel to be a Jewish state -- that would, ultimately, be Arab/Muslim in nature.
But then matters shifted. WE said, well, if negotiations aren't going to progress, and there are going to be unilateral declarations from the PA, we might unilaterally move to assume full sovereignty over significant parts of Judea and Samaria. That would make the bulk of Judea and Samaria, which the Palestinians covet, very Jewish indeed, and block the very possibility of forming a viable Palestinian state.
So they, slip-sliding, said, uh oh, let's reverse tactics.
What we learn from this is the value of making offensive moves and not appeasing.
~~~~~~~~~~
There might have been some advantage to the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, however.
MK Uri Ariel, of the right wing Ihud Leumi (National Union), is one of those who sees it this way:
"I pray for Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, to declare a state unilaterally. That is the only way we can finally annul the wretched Oslo accord, which exacted a price in blood and brought the PLO terrorists into the state of Israel.
“A statement of this nature means that the government will have no choice but to annex all of the communities in Judea and Samaria. In practice, it will have to annex the entire region and formally turn it into a part of the state of Israel.”
Everything is so much in flux, it's difficult to predict what will come next. But it remains extremely unlikely that we'll extend sovereignty over even parts of Judea and Samaria except in response to some PA stance that essentially voids Oslo. More's the pity.
At very least there has been a paradigm shift of sorts -- as Israel is making it increasingly clear that return to the Green Line is not an option.
~~~~~~~~~~
And, as the PA leaders continue to slip-slide, we must not forget the option of "armed resistance," which they maintain is their right. This past August, Fatah (the major constituent party of the PA) held a congress, its first in 20 years. This provided the party with an opportunity to genuinely moderate, by adjusting its constitution to eliminate the call for violence. That, however, is not what happened. They continue to embrace this option.
~~~~~~~~~~
And it happens that I see the following news item as having a connection to their embrace of this option:
The PA is calling an international conference, which will be attended by representatives of such countries as Spain, Canada, Britain, Ireland, South Africa, and Sweden who are involved in international legal systems.
A major goal they intend to advance in the course of the conference: Securing a change in the status of their terrorists in Israeli prisons to "prisoners of war."
According to Israel National News, this will enable them to secure more "rights" for the prisoners under the Geneva Conventions. But frankly I find it hard to believe that it would be possible to provide them with any more rights. As it is, I'm ashamed that these terrorists are treated as well as they are. They not only can have family visitations, but also conjugal rights. And they can actually earn a degree from an Israeli university while sitting in our prisons.
I would suggest the possibility that what they really want is to redefine terrorism down. Terrorism, what terrorism? Our brave soldiers are merely engaging in "resistance against the occupation," which is their right under international law. Watch and see.
~~~~~~~~~~
Sources in the Netanyahu government are claiming that there is no crisis with the US over our building in Gilo. Although surprised at the intensity of the US response (with the US saying it is "dismayed" about this), these sources maintain that it is understood that there will be no building freeze in Jerusalem. This reaction, they say, is a show for PA consumption.
I'm not sure if this take is quite accurate. Obama has actually given an interview to Fox news, in which he criticized the plans to build in Gilo, saying this makes it more difficult to re-start negotiations and "embitters" the Palestinians. Embitters? Give me a break.
~~~~~~~~~~
A question occurs to me here:
The statement about how it's understood that there is no freeze in Jerusalem makes it clear that we are abiding by some informal and very quiet agreement regarding a freeze at least in major settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria (whatever the parameters with regard to completing units for which tenders have already been issued). This was supposed to be done to make the PA happy, so negotiations could begin. Obviously, Obama is still hoping -- oi! is he hoping -- this will happen. But if the PA is intransigent, and there are no negotiations, precisely how long do we wait before we say the deal is off? This is the danger inherent in these open-ended arrangements.
~~~~~~~~~~
The articles about Fort Hood keep coming, and just when I think I've read enough, one appears that is significant enough to merit being shared. (Thanks, Dick B)
This powerful piece has a significantly different tone because it is written by an ex-army man. Lieutenant Colonel Allen B West (US Army, Ret) was actually a Battalion Commander at Fort Hood and is now running for Congress in FL.
westimage2
He wrote:
"...A military installation, whether it is Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, or Coast Guard, is supposed to be a safe sanctuary for our Warriors and their families. It is intended to provide a home whereby our "Band of Brothers and Sisters" can find solace and bond beyond just the foxhole, but as family units.
"A military installation is supposed to be a place where our Warriors train for war, to serve and protect our Nation.
"On Thursday, 5 November 2009 Ft Hood became a part of the battlefield in the war against Islamic totalitarianism and state sponsored terrorism.
"There may be those who feel threatened by my words and would even recommend they not be uttered. To those individuals I say step aside because now is not the time for cowardice. Our Country has become so paralyzed by political correctness that we have allowed a vile and determined enemy to breach what should be the safest place in America, an Army post.
"...Saudi Arabia is sponsoring radical Imams who enter into our prisons and convert young men to a virulent Wahabbist ideology….one resulting in four individuals wanting to destroy synagogues in New York with plastic explosives. Thank God the explosives were dummy. They are sponsoring textbooks which present Islamic-centric revisionist history in our schools.
"We must recognize that there is an urgent need to separate the theo-political radical Islamic ideology out of our American society. We must begin to demand surveillance of suspected Imams and mosques that are spreading hate and preaching the overthrow of our Constitutional Republic……that speech is not protected under First Amendment, it is sedition and, if done by an American, treason.
"There should not be some 30 Islamic terrorist training camps in America. That has nothing to do with First Amendment Freedom of Religion. The Saudis are not our friends and any American political figure who believes such is delusional.
"When tolerance becomes a one way street it certainly leads to cultural suicide. We are on that street. Liberals cannot be trusted to defend our Republic, because their sympathies obviously lie with their perceived victim, Major Nidal Malik Hasan.
"I make no apologies for these words, and anyone angered by them, please, go to Ft Hood and look into the eyes of the real victims. The tragedy at Ft Hood Texas did not have to happen. Consider now the feelings of those there and on every military installation in the world. Consider the feelings of the Warriors deployed into combat zones who now are concerned that their loved ones at home are in a combat zone.
"Ft Hood suffered an Islamic jihadist attack, stop the denial, and realize a simple point.
"The reality of your enemy must become your own."
http://thesilentmajority.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/%E2%80%9Ctragedy-at-ft-hood%E2%80%9D-from-lt-col-allen-b-west-us-army-ret/
Share this man's words broadly, my friends.
~~~~~~~~~~
"The Good News Corner"
From many places on the earth, there are Jews who come home to Israel. In some cases, individuals whose ancestors were Jews come here to reclaim their heritage and join with us.
See this video of descendants of the Jews of Kaifeng, China, come to Israel to re-connect with their Jewish roots and convert formally to Judaism.
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=edhtdoPukk0 (Thanks, Cheryl)
~~~~~~~~~~
see my website www.ArlenefromIsrael.info
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Pro-Israel fliers confiscated at campus speech
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Fliers distributed by Binghamton University Jewish students outside a campus speech by a critic of Israel were collected and confiscated by event organizers during the event.
Students from the Hillel Jewish Student Union at Binghamton passed out information outside auditorium doors before a Nov. 10 speech by former Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney. The New York State university's Hillel president, Rebecca Kohn, described the fliers as facts about Israel and Hamas and other points that they did not believe McKinney would address in her speech, which was titled "Black in America, Black in Palestine." But before McKinney spoke, leaders of the Binghamton Political Initiative, a graduate-student organized group, asked that anyone who had received a Hillel flier should pass them to the end of the row so they could be collected.
Kohn also said that during the question period, those who asked questions critical of McKinney's views were quickly cut off or embarrassed. For example, when one pro-Israel questioner briefly stuttered from nerves, McKinney held up the flier that Hillel passed out and said, “Do you need this?"
An article by Hillel describing the events of the McKinney speech was printed as a letter to the editor in the campus newspaper last Friday. Kohn said Hillel was reaching out to the Binghamton Political Initiative to discuss the event. The event was co-sponsored by the Multicultural Resource Center and other campus organizations.
A university spokeswoman said Tuesday that school administrators had met with the Hillel director to discuss Jewish student concerns and said the school hoped that students could work out the issue among themselves.
“While the University defends the right of event organizers to determine the content of their programs, we hope and expect that all attendees at events held on campus will be treated respectfully regardless as to the extent of their agreement with the program's message," the university said in a statement. "When that does not occur, our response is to continue to work with students and student organizations to promote a more respectful community. Part of that work is helping students to develop the necessary tools to resolve disputes effectively amongst themselves."
The statement also said that "student organizations are under no requirement to be neutral or balanced in their expressive activity and we have been made aware of concerns that the hosts of this event were not interested in presenting critiques of the guest speaker as part of the program. At Binghamton University, as at most campuses, those who stand in disagreement with a program's message certainly have many alternative avenues available to them to express their own viewpoints including hosting their own events, letter writing campaigns and rallies."
Kohn said that while the administration had met with the campus Hillel director, no one had met with any Jewish students. She said the university's statement amounted to administrators saying that while they did not approve of the disrespect shown to attendees at the McKinney speech, they were not going to take any action.
McKinney, whose father famously blamed "J-E-W-S" when she was defeated in a race for re-election to her Atlanta-area congressional district in 2002, has most recently been involved in the Free Gaza movement. She was arrested last summer by Israel for attempting to break the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip and called Israel's operation in Gaza "full-scale, outright genocide."
During her Binghamton speech, she made comparisons between Palestinians and blacks in America, and called Israel an apartheid state.
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/11/17/1009246/sponsors-of-mckinney-speech-at-binghamton-school-confiscate-pro-israel-fliers
Students from the Hillel Jewish Student Union at Binghamton passed out information outside auditorium doors before a Nov. 10 speech by former Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney. The New York State university's Hillel president, Rebecca Kohn, described the fliers as facts about Israel and Hamas and other points that they did not believe McKinney would address in her speech, which was titled "Black in America, Black in Palestine." But before McKinney spoke, leaders of the Binghamton Political Initiative, a graduate-student organized group, asked that anyone who had received a Hillel flier should pass them to the end of the row so they could be collected.
Kohn also said that during the question period, those who asked questions critical of McKinney's views were quickly cut off or embarrassed. For example, when one pro-Israel questioner briefly stuttered from nerves, McKinney held up the flier that Hillel passed out and said, “Do you need this?"
An article by Hillel describing the events of the McKinney speech was printed as a letter to the editor in the campus newspaper last Friday. Kohn said Hillel was reaching out to the Binghamton Political Initiative to discuss the event. The event was co-sponsored by the Multicultural Resource Center and other campus organizations.
A university spokeswoman said Tuesday that school administrators had met with the Hillel director to discuss Jewish student concerns and said the school hoped that students could work out the issue among themselves.
“While the University defends the right of event organizers to determine the content of their programs, we hope and expect that all attendees at events held on campus will be treated respectfully regardless as to the extent of their agreement with the program's message," the university said in a statement. "When that does not occur, our response is to continue to work with students and student organizations to promote a more respectful community. Part of that work is helping students to develop the necessary tools to resolve disputes effectively amongst themselves."
The statement also said that "student organizations are under no requirement to be neutral or balanced in their expressive activity and we have been made aware of concerns that the hosts of this event were not interested in presenting critiques of the guest speaker as part of the program. At Binghamton University, as at most campuses, those who stand in disagreement with a program's message certainly have many alternative avenues available to them to express their own viewpoints including hosting their own events, letter writing campaigns and rallies."
Kohn said that while the administration had met with the campus Hillel director, no one had met with any Jewish students. She said the university's statement amounted to administrators saying that while they did not approve of the disrespect shown to attendees at the McKinney speech, they were not going to take any action.
McKinney, whose father famously blamed "J-E-W-S" when she was defeated in a race for re-election to her Atlanta-area congressional district in 2002, has most recently been involved in the Free Gaza movement. She was arrested last summer by Israel for attempting to break the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip and called Israel's operation in Gaza "full-scale, outright genocide."
During her Binghamton speech, she made comparisons between Palestinians and blacks in America, and called Israel an apartheid state.
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/11/17/1009246/sponsors-of-mckinney-speech-at-binghamton-school-confiscate-pro-israel-fliers
Netanyahu Quietly Rejects US Clamp on Jerusalem
Hana Levi Julian
A7 News
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has quietly rejected an attempt by the United States to clamp down on Israeli construction within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. Netanyahu is not willing to publicly discuss his response to the U.S. criticism, however, nor will he allow anyone else in his government to talk about it. "The office has no reaction to that," David Baker, spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office, told Israel National News on Wednesday. He refused further comment.
Baker's actions clearly confirmed reports by senior sources that Netanyahu had warned government officials against making any statements about the U.S. pressure on Israel to halt construction in parts of Jerusalem that were restored to the capital after the 1967 Six Day War -- this time, the neighborhood of Gilo, built in 1971.
The southeastern neighborhood, one of the capital's largest, has a population of some 33,000 and has just been added to the list for the first time. But the burgeoning northwestern Jerusalem suburb of Ramot, home to at least 40,000 residents, may soon be questioned as well, since it is in the same category.
During a media briefing Tuesday in Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly slammed the decision by the Jerusalem Municipal Planning Committee to approve a plan to build 900 housing units in Gilo.
"At a time when we are working to relaunch negotiations, we believe that these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed," he said. "So we object to this, and we object to other Israeli practices in Jerusalem related to housing, including the continuing pattern of evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes," he said.
"And -- just to repeat what we've said all along, our position on Jerusalem is clear," Kelly added. "We believe that that -- that Jerusalem is a permanent status issue that must be resolved through negotiations between the two parties."
Kelly confirmed that U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell met Monday in London with a Netanyahu adviser. He parried a question raised by a journalist as to whether Mitchell had requested that Netanyahu halt construction in Gilo and sidestepped another question on whether that request had been rejected. Mitchell, who was expected back in Washington on Wednesday, has no plans to meet with PA officials at present, said Kelly, but did not explain why.
He also noted that the U.S. was discouraging "any kind of unilateral appeal for United Nations Security Council recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. That would fall in that category of unilateral actions."
'Red Line' Drawn at Jerusalem
Prime Minister Netanyahu has been willing to show the "greatest possible restraint" concerning construction in Judea and Samaria, according to a government source. However, he said, Netanyahu firmly drew the line at Jerusalem.
The city's mayor, Nir Barket, has also said bluntly he would not halt construction in any part of the capital, east or west. "Israeli law does not discriminate between Arabs and Jews or between east and west of the city," he said in a statement issued to the media.
"The demand to cease construction just for Jews is illegal, also in the United States and any other enlightened place in the world. It is inconceivable that the U.S. government would demand a construction freeze in the U.S. based on race, religion or sex, and the attempt to demand this from Jerusalem constitutes a double standard that is unacceptable. The Jerusalem municipality will continue to enable construction in every part of the city for Jews and Arabs alike," Barkat vowed.
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin had no compunctions whatsoever about expressing his anger on Tuesday against the U.S. attempt to interfere with internal Israeli policies. Speaking during a meeting with visiting Lithuanian Ambassador Darius Degotis, Rivlin said the new demands were "of the type that are ... pushing us toward a red line that we cannot allow ourselves to cross, and are not legitimate."
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon added his voice to the chorus of Western disapproval of the Jerusalem municipality's actions Tuesday night, according to IDF Army Radio. U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said in a statement that Ban "believes such actions undermine efforts for peace and cast doubt on the viability of the two-state solution." In the statement, she quoted Ban as referring to Gilo as a "settlement" built on territory "conquered from the Palestinians in 1967."
The British Foreign Office also issued a statement saying "The Foreign Secretary has been very clear that a credible deal involves Jerusalem as a shared capital. Expanding settlements on occupied land in east Jerusalem makes that deal much harder, so this decision on Gilo is wrong and we oppose it."
PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat took advantage of the bruhaha to claim there was little point in resuming peace talks when Israel is still building homes in the eastern part of the capital. "We condemn this in the strongest possible terms. It shows that it is meaningless to resume negotiations," he said.
The land on which Gilo was built, as with the suburb of Ramot and other so-called "disputed" parts of Jerusalem, was wrested from Israel by Jordan during the 1948 War. It was occupied solely by the Hashemite Kingdom until 1967, when Israel won it back, restoring Jerusalem to its former unified status as the unidivided capital of Israel and the Jewish People.
Israeli Sderot Residents Suffer Trauma – by Jamie Glazov
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Anav Silverman, the International Correspondent at Sderot Media Center in Sderot, Israel.
FP: Anav Silverman, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Silverman: Thank you for having me here again.
FP: Can you tell us about the PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) trauma that Israeli Sderot residents are still suffering from after 8 years of Gaza rocket fire? Silverman: Yes, although there have been relatively fewer rockets since Operation Cast Lead ended, residents in Sderot and the western Negev are still reeling from the shock and trauma of thousands of Gaza rockets that have exploded in the region. There have been over 250 rockets fired at Sderot and southern Israel since the ceasefire began on January 18, 2009. However each time the Tzeva Adom (Color Red) siren is set off by a rocket–even if it is only once a week—it still sends residents into shock and disrupts any sense of normalcy. We know that Hamas is gearing up for the next rocket escalation. Israeli intelligence sources report that Hamas is working on establishing bigger and more accurate rockets to fire into Israel. At the same time, Sderot families are also preparing for the future rocket attacks–government mandated bomb-shelters can be seen being constructed for homes across the city.
At this time, there is no post yet to the trauma here in Sderot, not when sporadic rockets fired from northern Gaza and Sderot mothers are still taking medication to calm their nerves. Sderot children began the first day of school in September expecting rocket attacks, because that’s how the school year usually opened in previous years. The fear and uncertainty that the Iranian-backed Hamas has instilled into the civilian residents of southern Israel– through the rocket warfare– is a violation of international humanitarian law that continues to this day.
FP: And so the situation we have is that, despite this violence, Gaza’s militants receive hundreds of million of dollars in international aid. Your thoughts?
Silverman: It is a shame and a crime that hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid in large part does not go to the people who need it most in Gaza. There is little monitoring of where the funds are transferred and exactly who in the Gaza Strip benefits from all this global generosity. Hamas, the radical Islamic regime that rules Gaza, spends millions of dollars each year inculcating the next generation of Palestinian children to hate and seek the destruction of Israel, through summer camps, media, and religious indoctrination in schools and mosques. Even more alarming, are the pro-Hamas agencies like UNRWA that are given the international funds to transfer in Gaza. UNRWA has publicly acknowledged in the past that Hamas members may very well make up their staff.
The fact remains that as long as Hamas is in power, the Gaza rocket infrastructure will continue to expand while the Hamas regime finds better and more improved ways to terrorize Israelis with the financial backing of Iran.
FP: And while Hamas murderers get funding, the Sderot Trauma facilities that provide vital therapy services to the Sderot community are on the verge of shutting down due to financial government cutbacks. What exactly does this say about the international community and the U.S. administration?
Silverman: It is a pretty ironic situation that as the Sderot Trauma Facilities are on the verge of closing down, while Gaza receives millions of dollars worth of humanitarian aid from the international community. Sderot residents may soon be left to cope with the trauma of rocket attacks on their own, as trucks laden with humanitarian goods pass through the Israel-Gaza border every day. Where is the humanitarian crisis?
During his 2008 campaign visit to Sderot, President Barack Obama stated that “The first job of any nation state is to protect its citizens. If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.” Why the US Administration continues to push for a peace agenda between Israel and the Palestinians, when the current Hamas government of Gaza is not a believer of peace with Israel–but a supporter of war–is difficult to fathom here in Sderot.
FP: So tell us your thoughts on this clear hypocrisy that we now see in the international community and the American administration when it comes to its indifference to terror crimes being committed against Israelis.
Silverman: I believe that this hypocrisy is the easier and more comfortable route for those who choose to view the Middle East conflict exclusively as the fault of Israel. There is obviously a much wider context to this conflict that many international leaders and government administrations refuse to acknowledge–the fact that Iran and Syria continue to provide financial and military backing to Islamic radical terror groups like Hamas and Hezbullah is one factor. Even more significant, is the hate-education of Israel and the west that much of the Muslim youth– both in Hamas-run Gaza and much of the Middle East– receive throughout their childhood as well as into adulthood, in schools, summer camps and mosques.
While much of the world remained silent during the nine years of Gaza rockets strikes on the population of 19,000 Israeli civilians living in the city of Sderot and thousands of other Israeli residents living near Gaza-border communities, the three-week Operation Cast Lead generated immediate international response against Israel. Operation Cast Lead, which was carried out to deter and stop Palestinian rocket launchers from targeting up to one million Israelis living in the south, became the opportune moment for Israel’s critics and haters to blast the Jewish state and delegitimize Israel’s democratic right to defend her citizens– in media, protests, campus events and other venues. If one rocket was fired from Mexico into a populated city in California, how would the United States respond?
FP: What can average people who read this interview do if they want to help Sderot residents and come to the aid of Israelis in general?
Silverman: One way to truly help change the Sderot situation is to get the voices of Sderot residents–their experiences and stories living under fundamental Islamists’ rocket terror– out to the rest of the world. Sderot Media Center is the only social media-advocacy organization in Sderot that advocates on behalf of Sderot residents both in Israeli and international media and political forums across the world, from Capitol Hill to the United Nations in Geneva.
Sderot Media Center launched the Sderot Community Treatment Theater one a year ago to provide drama therapy sessions to traumatized Sderot high school school girls. The treatment theater has now launched Children of Qassam Avenue, a theaterical production based on the real-life rocket stories of the Sderot high school girls, who have performed the play before audiences in Jerusalem and Sderot. The eventual plan is to bring the production to the Israeli Knesset and to Europe, the United States, and Canada.
To do this and continue with the operation of the theatre project, Sderot Media Center needs help and support. Anyone who is interested in helping us out, contact the media center at this e-mail: sderotinfo@gmail.com. Also, Sderot Media Center’s US Tax Deductible Account is: JNF, Albert S. Golbert, 601 W 5th St800, Los Angeles, CA, 90071-2094, *Earmarked: Sderot Media Center Project.
Thank you Jamie.
FP: Thank you for joining us Anav Silverman, we wish you the best.
Collaborators in the War Against the Jews: Sara Ro
Sara Roy, who holds a non-tenured “research” position at Harvard’s Center for Middle East Studies (CMES), claims to be a “political economist,” although she apparently has no training in economics or political science. She also claims to be an expert in Middle East Studies, but has no degree in that either. Her PhD is in Education. Roy claims to be an expert on the political economy of the Gaza Strip, but her real expertise is in anti-Israel leftist political propaganda. She worked on her doctoral dissertation in education part of the time while living for a while in the Gaza Strip, and got paid as a a research assistant by the West Bank Data Base Project, a propaganda project directed by anti-Israel radical Israeli non-academic leftists.
Roy’s Middle East studies publications are by and large propaganda diatribes, and many appear in non-academic anti-Israel propaganda magazines, some of which appear in openly anti-Semitic web magazines, at least one having intimate ties to the PLO. Phyllis Chessler calls her one of “the most savage critics—of America and Israel.” Roy is a prolific writer of newspaper op-eds and spends much of her time giving “expert” lectures about the Arab-Israel conflict.
Sara Roy was born Jewish, and she uses this circumstance as a lever to better support Israel’s enemies. She refers frequently to something she calls a “Jewish ethical perspective” whenever bashing Israel and cites her “Jewish roots” when promoting the Hamas on anti-Semitic web sites such as the Neo-Stalinist Counterpunch.
Roy is, in fact, arguably the leading apologist for Hamas in American academia today. She is the inventor of an imaginary “New Hamas,” a fictional group that seeks peace and social wellbeing for Palestinians, unlike the real Hamas, which seeks to carry out a second Holocaust of Jews. Roy has been described as “the ringmaster of Harvard’s bash Israel circus.” According to Middle East scholar Martin Kramer:
‘Her current project is the whitewashing of Hamas, but she’s best known for invidious comparisons she drew in April 2002 between the Israeli occupation and the Holocaust. (She thinks being the child of Holocaust survivors gives her a license.) “There is no let-up,” Roy moans about the criticisms of Middle Eastern studies. She’s right about that. Permanent contention: get used to it.’
Roy is so goofy that she was invited to give the Edward Said Lecture at the Australian University of Adelaide in 2008. The entire lecture was devoted, with frequent invocations of “Edward,” to showing how the only lesson from eons of Jewish suffering is that everyone must support the Palestinian war against Israel.
While enjoying unrestricted exposure in the media, she simultaneously claims that she is being censored by the Right Wing Conspiracy. A case in point is the locally famous case of a book review which was rejected by Tufts University’s Fletcher Forum of World Affairs. In this essay she tried to trash Matthew Levitt’s Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad (2006) because it said mean things about the terror group. When the journal refused to run the piece, she pouted that this constituted a “blatant…case of censorship.” She has denounced Campus-Watch as well for its exposure of extremist propaganda in Middle East studies. In her words, “What all this boils down to is an attempt to silence criticism of US policy, and put an end to disagreement with the neo-conservative agenda. It is not diversity that is being sought but conformity.”
When Roy gets bored with Harvard, she goes on anti-Israel speaking walkabouts. Her message is always the same: The Palestinians are innocent victims of Israel’s brutal oppression. Hezb’Allah and Hamas terrorism is an entirely understable response to Israeli evil. Israel gobbles up “Arab land” out of imperialist obsession. . Every use of force by Israel is a brutal provocation; every act of terror by Arabs is a protest against occupation.
Writing recently in the Harvard student newspaper, Roy opined: “Gaza is an example of a society that has been deliberately reduced to a state of abject destitution, its once productive population transformed into one of aid-dependent paupers. This context is undeniably one of mass suffering, created largely by Israel but with the active complicity of the international community, especially the U.S. and European Union, and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.” Got that? Even the Palestininan opponents of Hamas and the EU are collaborators with Israel in its unspeakable crimes. (Roy was subsequently taken apart for her bias by a Harvard student writing in the paper.)
Roy is the author of two books: The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development (1995), and The Economics of Middle East Peace: A Reassessment (1999). To call her viewpoint one dimension is to praise it unjustly. Her repetitious theme is that there is nothing at all wrong with Palestinian society that cannot be blamed directly on the Jews. Destroying the Palestinian economy is why Israel constructed its security fence, for instance; this decision had nothing at all to do with countless terrorist atrocities against Jews carried out by Palestinians.
Her work in recent years at Harvard has been devoted to prettifying Hamas and other Islamofascist movements among Palestinians, and to try to prove how moderate they are. In her “study” of Hamas, she displays complete ignorance as to the background of Hamas and its roots in the Islamofascist “Muslim Brotherhood” movement. She paints it as a pastoral little social welfare group. She has published at least one anti-Israel article together with someone from a notorious Hamas front group, the so-called Gaza Community Mental Health Program.
Writing in the al-Jazeera newspaper – with its intimate links to al-Qaeda – in 2003, Roy insisted that the only way to stop Hamas terrorism was to first end Israel’s “occupation.” But the following year Israel totally ended its occupation of Gaza. The direct consequence was the bloody campaign of Hamas rocket and other terror attacks from Gaza against Israeli civilians inside Israel’s pre-1967 borders. This terror campaign directly lead to the “Cast Lead” military operation by Israel last year. Roy has never apologized nor repudiated her earlier false prophecy. To the contrary, the behavior of Hamas since Israel’s Gaza withdrawal has simply persuaded her all the more that Israeli “occupation” is the exclusive cause of all Middle East violence, even when it does not exist.
Roy is a nominal board member of Marc Ellis’ radically anti Israel Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University. She sits on the boards of other anti-Israel organizations. Like Norman Finkelstein, Roy uses the fact that her own parents were Holocaust survivors to grant her own hatred of Israel and work against it legitimacy. As one example, she published the following in the “Journal of Palestine Studies,” a propaganda magazine controlled by the PLO: “[I]t was perhaps inevitable [because of her parents’ experiences] that I would follow a path that would lead me to the Arab-Israeli issue.” She then draws parallels between Nazi treatment of Jews and Israeli soldiers’ treatment of Palestinians which, in her opinion, “were absolutely equivalent in principle, intent, and impact: to humiliate and dehumanize.” [Like Ellis, she argues obsessively that the only real lesson of value to be learned from the Holocaust of European Jews during World War II is that Israel has no right to exist.
Hamas and Its Long-Range Rockets: Military and Political Implications
Jeffrey White
November 17, 2009
This is the second of a two-part series examining recent military developments involving Hizballah and Hamas. PolicyWatch #1600 examined the implications of the recent intercept by the Israeli navy of a large Iranian arms cargo intended for Hizballah.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recently monitored the launch of a 60-km-range artillery rocket from Gaza into the Mediterranean Sea. Israeli military intelligence has assessed that the rocket was launched by Hamas and originated in Iran. A rocket with such a range, when fired from Gaza, can reach the southern outskirts of Tel Aviv as well as targets across much of southern Israel. This recent launch occurs amid Hamas's efforts to build a serious long-range rocket force centering on weapons with a 40- to 60-km range. Such a plan creates military instability for the Israelis and strengthens Hamas politically in its struggle with Fatah. Weapons capability of this level could also be a potential spoiler in any Palestinian negotiations with Israel.
Hamas Builds a Long-Range Rocket Force
While the specific type of rocket tested was not identified, according to Israeli sources it was probably five meters long with a 45-kg warhead. The weapon's range could be increased by reducing the size of the warhead, so 60 km is not necessarily the maximum. In fact, according to Amos Yadlin, IDF director of military intelligence, Hamas now has "dozens" of rockets with a 60-km range.
New Capabilities
Long-range rockets provide Hamas with an array of capabilities that pose problems for the IDF and the Israeli government. With Hamas's ability to strike deeper into Israel comes an increased burden on civil defenses, a higher likelihood that civilian life will be disrupted in larger swaths of the country, and possible further complications for military operations. During the IDF's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year, Hamas attempted to target military facilities, including airfields, military camps, and weapons storage facilities, albeit with little success. A rocket with a 60-km range and a 45-kg warhead potentially has greater destructive ability than the 40-km rockets with smaller warheads used by Hamas in the past. This is the case especially against facilities that have not been substantially hardened.
Associated Issues
The true significance of Hamas's long-range rocket force depends on a number of factors. To begin with, the number of rockets possessed by Hamas will influence its ability to maintain rocket firings during combat and to inflict damage. These types of weapons are inherently inaccurate, and it is necessary to fire many to ensure that even large targets are hit. In addition, large numbers of falling rockets have a greater impact both politically and psychologically than smaller numbers. Warhead size and type are important as well. The warheads carried on the 60-km rockets may be improved conventional munitions with greater terminal effects (blast or fragmentation), such as Hizballah used in the 2006 Lebanon war.
While the new weapons provide new opportunities for Hamas, they also pose a challenge. To fully exploit the potential of these weapons, Hamas needs to create an intelligence apparatus that allows for fire to be adjusted and damage assessed. At present, Hamas probably lacks much capability in this area, but the group could obtain limited information from news reports and observers on the ground. The longer-range missiles also have a larger "signature" in terms of storage facilities and firing units; additionally, they are more conspicuous when moving. These factors place them at higher risk of discovery and destruction by Israeli forces.
Hamas will have to develop a concept of operation for employment of the new long-range rockets, as well as determine who controls and operates them. In this process, Hamas leaders will need to consider carefully how Israel might react to attacks both on main population centers and that threaten to disrupt Israeli military operations.
IDF Response
The IDF will need to address the problem of Hamas's long-range rockets, much as it addressed Hizballah's long-range rockets in 2006. As shown by its efforts during the 2006 war and Operation Cast Lead, Israel has both a strong understanding of the threat and substantial capability to deal with it. Furthermore, Gaza offers a different military environment from southern Lebanon, in many ways less challenging for the IDF. Gaza's land mass is much smaller than that of southern Lebanon and therefore easier to cover with intelligence and strike assets. In addition, Hamas's new weapons require larger launchers -- in turn requiring larger crews -- which would likely have a short operational life, based on Israeli Air Force response times in the 2006 war and Operation Cast Lead. Given the potential threat, Israeli intelligence services will likely place a high priority on locating storage depots and launchers for long-range rockets, as well as their crews and commanders. Once identified, all components of the long-range rocket system will be targeted by Israeli air and ground forces, as occurred during Cast Lead.
Israel's capability for dealing with the rocket threat is improving. By the middle of next year, Israel will probably be ready to deploy the Iron Dome antirocket system, which will be capable of destroying at least some incoming rockets. Enhanced civil defense measures include the rocket attack warning system, provision of hardened shelters, and coordination of medical and other emergency services. Collectively, these defensive measures reduce but do not eliminate the threat from Hamas rockets.
Implications
As a result of Hamas's development of a long-range rocket force, future military conflicts with Israel will almost certainly be more intense, cover a broader geographic area, and produce more destruction in both Israel and Gaza as the IDF acts to destroy the rockets. Hamas's new rocket capabilities must also be seen in the context of Hizballah's acquisition of rockets with a 300-km range. In a possible two-front war, this means that most of Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, would be within the range of Hamas or Hizballah rockets.
Through its growing rocket capabilities, Hamas is weakening the measure of deterrence established by Israel through Operation Cast Lead. And while Hamas has been careful since Cast Lead to avoid actions that would lead to renewed hostilities, its growing military capabilities may generate internal pressure to use its rockets or undertake other destabilizing actions. In December 2008, Hamas miscalculated gravely with respect to Israeli intentions and its own capabilities, sparking an intense conflict. There is no guarantee this will not happen again.
The creation of a long-range rocket force reinforces Hamas politically by enhancing its image as a "resistance" movement and its role as a spoiler and competitor to Fatah. Expanded military capacity also lends greater weight to the organization's hard-line "military wing."
From Israel's standpoint, the potential political effects of threats to large population centers will likely make the government more willing to deal decisively with a revamped threat from Hamas. This would probably mean a comprehensive air and ground offensive throughout Gaza -- one that would far exceed the scope of Cast Lead.
Conclusion
The punishment dealt by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead has translated into a measure of deterrence against Hamas. Maintaining such a level of deterrence will require occasional military action in Gaza and transmission of appropriate warnings. A steady improvement in active and passive defenses will help as well. Nevertheless, deterrence will likely fail at some point, and should this occur, Israel will probably act sooner and more intensively against Hamas.
As with Iranian arms shipments to Hizballah, the international community could do more to impede arms shipments to Hamas. Gaza is more isolated than Lebanon, and Hamas is much more vulnerable to antismuggling measures than Hizballah. Egypt has already increased its efforts to police its border with Gaza, but additional measures are needed to disrupt the smuggling system within Egypt and to stop Iranian arms shipments at sea.
Jeffrey White is a defense fellow at The Washington Institute, specializing in the military and security affairs of the Levant, Iraq, and Iran. He is the author of the recent Institute Policy Focus Hamas in Combat: The Military Performance of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement.
http://sn102w.snt102.mail.live.com/default.aspx?n=420308049&wa=wsignin1.0
November 17, 2009
This is the second of a two-part series examining recent military developments involving Hizballah and Hamas. PolicyWatch #1600 examined the implications of the recent intercept by the Israeli navy of a large Iranian arms cargo intended for Hizballah.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recently monitored the launch of a 60-km-range artillery rocket from Gaza into the Mediterranean Sea. Israeli military intelligence has assessed that the rocket was launched by Hamas and originated in Iran. A rocket with such a range, when fired from Gaza, can reach the southern outskirts of Tel Aviv as well as targets across much of southern Israel. This recent launch occurs amid Hamas's efforts to build a serious long-range rocket force centering on weapons with a 40- to 60-km range. Such a plan creates military instability for the Israelis and strengthens Hamas politically in its struggle with Fatah. Weapons capability of this level could also be a potential spoiler in any Palestinian negotiations with Israel.
Hamas Builds a Long-Range Rocket Force
While the specific type of rocket tested was not identified, according to Israeli sources it was probably five meters long with a 45-kg warhead. The weapon's range could be increased by reducing the size of the warhead, so 60 km is not necessarily the maximum. In fact, according to Amos Yadlin, IDF director of military intelligence, Hamas now has "dozens" of rockets with a 60-km range.
New Capabilities
Long-range rockets provide Hamas with an array of capabilities that pose problems for the IDF and the Israeli government. With Hamas's ability to strike deeper into Israel comes an increased burden on civil defenses, a higher likelihood that civilian life will be disrupted in larger swaths of the country, and possible further complications for military operations. During the IDF's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year, Hamas attempted to target military facilities, including airfields, military camps, and weapons storage facilities, albeit with little success. A rocket with a 60-km range and a 45-kg warhead potentially has greater destructive ability than the 40-km rockets with smaller warheads used by Hamas in the past. This is the case especially against facilities that have not been substantially hardened.
Associated Issues
The true significance of Hamas's long-range rocket force depends on a number of factors. To begin with, the number of rockets possessed by Hamas will influence its ability to maintain rocket firings during combat and to inflict damage. These types of weapons are inherently inaccurate, and it is necessary to fire many to ensure that even large targets are hit. In addition, large numbers of falling rockets have a greater impact both politically and psychologically than smaller numbers. Warhead size and type are important as well. The warheads carried on the 60-km rockets may be improved conventional munitions with greater terminal effects (blast or fragmentation), such as Hizballah used in the 2006 Lebanon war.
While the new weapons provide new opportunities for Hamas, they also pose a challenge. To fully exploit the potential of these weapons, Hamas needs to create an intelligence apparatus that allows for fire to be adjusted and damage assessed. At present, Hamas probably lacks much capability in this area, but the group could obtain limited information from news reports and observers on the ground. The longer-range missiles also have a larger "signature" in terms of storage facilities and firing units; additionally, they are more conspicuous when moving. These factors place them at higher risk of discovery and destruction by Israeli forces.
Hamas will have to develop a concept of operation for employment of the new long-range rockets, as well as determine who controls and operates them. In this process, Hamas leaders will need to consider carefully how Israel might react to attacks both on main population centers and that threaten to disrupt Israeli military operations.
IDF Response
The IDF will need to address the problem of Hamas's long-range rockets, much as it addressed Hizballah's long-range rockets in 2006. As shown by its efforts during the 2006 war and Operation Cast Lead, Israel has both a strong understanding of the threat and substantial capability to deal with it. Furthermore, Gaza offers a different military environment from southern Lebanon, in many ways less challenging for the IDF. Gaza's land mass is much smaller than that of southern Lebanon and therefore easier to cover with intelligence and strike assets. In addition, Hamas's new weapons require larger launchers -- in turn requiring larger crews -- which would likely have a short operational life, based on Israeli Air Force response times in the 2006 war and Operation Cast Lead. Given the potential threat, Israeli intelligence services will likely place a high priority on locating storage depots and launchers for long-range rockets, as well as their crews and commanders. Once identified, all components of the long-range rocket system will be targeted by Israeli air and ground forces, as occurred during Cast Lead.
Israel's capability for dealing with the rocket threat is improving. By the middle of next year, Israel will probably be ready to deploy the Iron Dome antirocket system, which will be capable of destroying at least some incoming rockets. Enhanced civil defense measures include the rocket attack warning system, provision of hardened shelters, and coordination of medical and other emergency services. Collectively, these defensive measures reduce but do not eliminate the threat from Hamas rockets.
Implications
As a result of Hamas's development of a long-range rocket force, future military conflicts with Israel will almost certainly be more intense, cover a broader geographic area, and produce more destruction in both Israel and Gaza as the IDF acts to destroy the rockets. Hamas's new rocket capabilities must also be seen in the context of Hizballah's acquisition of rockets with a 300-km range. In a possible two-front war, this means that most of Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, would be within the range of Hamas or Hizballah rockets.
Through its growing rocket capabilities, Hamas is weakening the measure of deterrence established by Israel through Operation Cast Lead. And while Hamas has been careful since Cast Lead to avoid actions that would lead to renewed hostilities, its growing military capabilities may generate internal pressure to use its rockets or undertake other destabilizing actions. In December 2008, Hamas miscalculated gravely with respect to Israeli intentions and its own capabilities, sparking an intense conflict. There is no guarantee this will not happen again.
The creation of a long-range rocket force reinforces Hamas politically by enhancing its image as a "resistance" movement and its role as a spoiler and competitor to Fatah. Expanded military capacity also lends greater weight to the organization's hard-line "military wing."
From Israel's standpoint, the potential political effects of threats to large population centers will likely make the government more willing to deal decisively with a revamped threat from Hamas. This would probably mean a comprehensive air and ground offensive throughout Gaza -- one that would far exceed the scope of Cast Lead.
Conclusion
The punishment dealt by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead has translated into a measure of deterrence against Hamas. Maintaining such a level of deterrence will require occasional military action in Gaza and transmission of appropriate warnings. A steady improvement in active and passive defenses will help as well. Nevertheless, deterrence will likely fail at some point, and should this occur, Israel will probably act sooner and more intensively against Hamas.
As with Iranian arms shipments to Hizballah, the international community could do more to impede arms shipments to Hamas. Gaza is more isolated than Lebanon, and Hamas is much more vulnerable to antismuggling measures than Hizballah. Egypt has already increased its efforts to police its border with Gaza, but additional measures are needed to disrupt the smuggling system within Egypt and to stop Iranian arms shipments at sea.
Jeffrey White is a defense fellow at The Washington Institute, specializing in the military and security affairs of the Levant, Iraq, and Iran. He is the author of the recent Institute Policy Focus Hamas in Combat: The Military Performance of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement.
http://sn102w.snt102.mail.live.com/default.aspx?n=420308049&wa=wsignin1.0
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Israel is the only country that...
By the late Israeli humorist Efraim Kishon:
Israel is a country surrounded on all sides by enemies, but the people's headaches are caused by the neighbors upstairs.
Israel is a country where the same drivers who cuss you and flip you the bird will immediately pull over and offer you all forms of help if you look like you need it.
Israel is the only country in the world with bus drivers and taxi drivers who read Spinoza and Maimonides. Israel is the only country in the world where no one cares what the rules say when an important goal can be achieved by bending them.
Israel is the only country in the world where reservists are bossed around and commanded by officers, male and female, younger than their own children.
Israel is the only country in the world where "small talk" consists of loud, angry debate over politics and religion.
Israel is the only country in the world where the coffee is already so good that Starbucks went bankrupt trying to break into the local market.
Israel is one of the few places in the world where the sun sets into the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel is the only country in the world whose soldiers eat three sets of salads a day, none of which contain any lettuce (which is not really a food), and where olives ARE a food and even a main course in a meal, rather than something one tosses into a martini.
Israel is the only country in the world where one is unlikely to dig a cellar without hitting ancient archaeological artifacts.
Israel is the only country in the world where the leading writers in the country take buses.
Israel is the only country in the world where the graffiti is in Hebrew.
Israel is the only country in the world where the "black folks" walking around all wear yarmulkes.
Israel is the only country in the world that has a National Book Week, during which almost everyone attends a book fair and buys books.
Israel is the only country in the world where the ultra-Orthodox Jews beat up the police and not the other way around.
Israel is the only country in the world where inviting someone "out for a drink" means drinking cola, coffee or tea.
Israel is the only country in the world where bank robbers kiss the mezuzah as they leave with their loot.
Israel is one of the few countries in the world that truly likes and admires the United States .
Israel is the only country in the world that introduces applications of high-tech gadgets and devices, such as printers in banks that print out your statement on demand, years ahead of the United States and decades ahead of Europe .
Israel is the only country in the world where everyone on a flight gets to know one another before the plane lands. In many cases, they also get to know the pilot and all about his health or marital problems.
Israel is the only country in the world where no one has a foreign accent because everyone has a foreign accent.
Israel is the only country in the world where people cuss using dirty words in Russian or Arabic because Hebrew has never developed them.
Israel is the only country in the world where patients visiting physicians end up giving the doctor advice.
Israel is the only country in the world where everyone strikes up conversations while waiting in lines.
Israel is the only country in the world where people call an attaché case a "James Bond" and the "@" sign is called a "strudel".
Israel is the only country in the world where there is the most mysterious and mystical calm ambience in the streets on Yom Kippur, which cannot be explained unless you have experienced it.
Sunsets in Jerusalem are gorgeous every evening.
Israel is the only country in the world where people read English, write Hebrew and joke in Yiddish.
Comment: As an American living here now for roughly 10 years this is"spot on".
Israel is a country surrounded on all sides by enemies, but the people's headaches are caused by the neighbors upstairs.
Israel is a country where the same drivers who cuss you and flip you the bird will immediately pull over and offer you all forms of help if you look like you need it.
Israel is the only country in the world with bus drivers and taxi drivers who read Spinoza and Maimonides. Israel is the only country in the world where no one cares what the rules say when an important goal can be achieved by bending them.
Israel is the only country in the world where reservists are bossed around and commanded by officers, male and female, younger than their own children.
Israel is the only country in the world where "small talk" consists of loud, angry debate over politics and religion.
Israel is the only country in the world where the coffee is already so good that Starbucks went bankrupt trying to break into the local market.
Israel is one of the few places in the world where the sun sets into the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel is the only country in the world whose soldiers eat three sets of salads a day, none of which contain any lettuce (which is not really a food), and where olives ARE a food and even a main course in a meal, rather than something one tosses into a martini.
Israel is the only country in the world where one is unlikely to dig a cellar without hitting ancient archaeological artifacts.
Israel is the only country in the world where the leading writers in the country take buses.
Israel is the only country in the world where the graffiti is in Hebrew.
Israel is the only country in the world where the "black folks" walking around all wear yarmulkes.
Israel is the only country in the world that has a National Book Week, during which almost everyone attends a book fair and buys books.
Israel is the only country in the world where the ultra-Orthodox Jews beat up the police and not the other way around.
Israel is the only country in the world where inviting someone "out for a drink" means drinking cola, coffee or tea.
Israel is the only country in the world where bank robbers kiss the mezuzah as they leave with their loot.
Israel is one of the few countries in the world that truly likes and admires the United States .
Israel is the only country in the world that introduces applications of high-tech gadgets and devices, such as printers in banks that print out your statement on demand, years ahead of the United States and decades ahead of Europe .
Israel is the only country in the world where everyone on a flight gets to know one another before the plane lands. In many cases, they also get to know the pilot and all about his health or marital problems.
Israel is the only country in the world where no one has a foreign accent because everyone has a foreign accent.
Israel is the only country in the world where people cuss using dirty words in Russian or Arabic because Hebrew has never developed them.
Israel is the only country in the world where patients visiting physicians end up giving the doctor advice.
Israel is the only country in the world where everyone strikes up conversations while waiting in lines.
Israel is the only country in the world where people call an attaché case a "James Bond" and the "@" sign is called a "strudel".
Israel is the only country in the world where there is the most mysterious and mystical calm ambience in the streets on Yom Kippur, which cannot be explained unless you have experienced it.
Sunsets in Jerusalem are gorgeous every evening.
Israel is the only country in the world where people read English, write Hebrew and joke in Yiddish.
Comment: As an American living here now for roughly 10 years this is"spot on".
Gaza smuggling at pre-Cast Lead volume
Nov. 17, 2009
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST
Smuggling into the Gaza Strip from Egypt beneath the Philadelphi Corridor has returned to the busy levels that prevailed before Operation Cast Lead last winter, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Estimates of how many tunnels are now functioning range from several hundred to 1,000, although the most authoritative figures indicate that between 350 and 500 are currently operating. The IDF claimed to have destroyed about 300 tunnels during Cast Lead.
Israel has long asserted that the Egyptians could put an end to the entire smuggling industry within 24 hours if they wanted to, using military obstructions along the length of the Philadelphi Corridor.
But it does not want to - in part because the trade is an integral part of the economy in Sinai, and in part because it is not only arms that are being smuggled into Gaza, the Post has learned. Vital supplies are being brought in as well, and Egypt is unwilling to sever that link so long as Israel maintains its blockade on the Strip.
The concern in Egypt is that a crackdown on Hamas's smuggling industry would produce anti-government demonstrations in Cairo that could undermine President Hosni Mubarak's regime.
Israel had noted a marked reduction in the smuggling into Gaza after Cast Lead, but over the past few months, and especially the last few weeks, it has reverted to its former scale.
Fully laden trucks pull up alongside the entrances to the tunnels, often just meters from where Egyptian soldiers are deployed. But the Egyptians do nothing to thwart the smuggling, the Post has learned.
The US, which has provided technical assistance to Egypt in thwarting the smugglers, has been engaged in a dialogue with Cairo over the issue, without much success. It has also been working toward providing aid to local Egyptians so that they need not rely on smuggling for their livelihoods.
An indication of the continued traffic came in October, when Hamas test-fired an Iranian-made rocket with a range of 60 km. According to defense officials, Hamas likely has long-range rockets capable of reaching Tel Aviv.
Many in the Israeli security establishment anticipate that sooner or later, Israel will have to mount another military offensive against Hamas in Gaza. On Friday, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said, "If we will need to, we will operate again in the Gaza Strip to stop the rocket fire."
Israel's stated aim in Cast Lead was to put a halt to rocket fire across the border, deal a major blow to Hamas's terror infrastructure and create conditions under which it would not be able to rearm.
Although the Hamas regime has been depicted as being on the point of collapse toward the end of Cast Lead, the then-government of prime minister Ehud Olmert chose not to continue the operation, in good part because of the concern that Israel would be left in military control of the immensely hostile Strip and would find itself unable to extricate itself for years.
Meanwhile, Israel has been hearing suggestions from traditionally supportive American politicians that it consider lifting the blockade - to reduce Gazans' dependence on the Hamas-controlled tunneling and smuggling industries, and as a gesture to bolster Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
There is still widespread concern in both Israeli and American government circles over Abbas's declared intention not to seek reelection, even though the scheduled January 24 PA elections have now been postponed.
Echoing calls from the US administration, many senior coalition figures and members of the security establishment are urging the government to quickly consider a range of measures that might bolster Abbas and weaken Hamas - including alleviating the Gaza blockade and transferring greater responsibility in the West Bank to PA security forces, the Post has learned.
The performance of the PA forces is said to be far better than at any time in the past 15 years.
It is also recognized that a deal to free kidnapped IDF soldier St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit, which could involve the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners, would further bolster Hamas and weaken Abbas. Hence the need for steps to strengthen Abbas and his Prime Minister Salaam Fayad.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1258027307182&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST
Smuggling into the Gaza Strip from Egypt beneath the Philadelphi Corridor has returned to the busy levels that prevailed before Operation Cast Lead last winter, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Estimates of how many tunnels are now functioning range from several hundred to 1,000, although the most authoritative figures indicate that between 350 and 500 are currently operating. The IDF claimed to have destroyed about 300 tunnels during Cast Lead.
Israel has long asserted that the Egyptians could put an end to the entire smuggling industry within 24 hours if they wanted to, using military obstructions along the length of the Philadelphi Corridor.
But it does not want to - in part because the trade is an integral part of the economy in Sinai, and in part because it is not only arms that are being smuggled into Gaza, the Post has learned. Vital supplies are being brought in as well, and Egypt is unwilling to sever that link so long as Israel maintains its blockade on the Strip.
The concern in Egypt is that a crackdown on Hamas's smuggling industry would produce anti-government demonstrations in Cairo that could undermine President Hosni Mubarak's regime.
Israel had noted a marked reduction in the smuggling into Gaza after Cast Lead, but over the past few months, and especially the last few weeks, it has reverted to its former scale.
Fully laden trucks pull up alongside the entrances to the tunnels, often just meters from where Egyptian soldiers are deployed. But the Egyptians do nothing to thwart the smuggling, the Post has learned.
The US, which has provided technical assistance to Egypt in thwarting the smugglers, has been engaged in a dialogue with Cairo over the issue, without much success. It has also been working toward providing aid to local Egyptians so that they need not rely on smuggling for their livelihoods.
An indication of the continued traffic came in October, when Hamas test-fired an Iranian-made rocket with a range of 60 km. According to defense officials, Hamas likely has long-range rockets capable of reaching Tel Aviv.
Many in the Israeli security establishment anticipate that sooner or later, Israel will have to mount another military offensive against Hamas in Gaza. On Friday, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said, "If we will need to, we will operate again in the Gaza Strip to stop the rocket fire."
Israel's stated aim in Cast Lead was to put a halt to rocket fire across the border, deal a major blow to Hamas's terror infrastructure and create conditions under which it would not be able to rearm.
Although the Hamas regime has been depicted as being on the point of collapse toward the end of Cast Lead, the then-government of prime minister Ehud Olmert chose not to continue the operation, in good part because of the concern that Israel would be left in military control of the immensely hostile Strip and would find itself unable to extricate itself for years.
Meanwhile, Israel has been hearing suggestions from traditionally supportive American politicians that it consider lifting the blockade - to reduce Gazans' dependence on the Hamas-controlled tunneling and smuggling industries, and as a gesture to bolster Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
There is still widespread concern in both Israeli and American government circles over Abbas's declared intention not to seek reelection, even though the scheduled January 24 PA elections have now been postponed.
Echoing calls from the US administration, many senior coalition figures and members of the security establishment are urging the government to quickly consider a range of measures that might bolster Abbas and weaken Hamas - including alleviating the Gaza blockade and transferring greater responsibility in the West Bank to PA security forces, the Post has learned.
The performance of the PA forces is said to be far better than at any time in the past 15 years.
It is also recognized that a deal to free kidnapped IDF soldier St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit, which could involve the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners, would further bolster Hamas and weaken Abbas. Hence the need for steps to strengthen Abbas and his Prime Minister Salaam Fayad.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1258027307182&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
Monday, November 16, 2009
Obama’s Rose-Colored Glasses
by Floyd and Mary Beth Brown
President Obama needs to throw his “Muslims can do no evil” rose-colored glasses off and see the real world. After listening to remarks by Barack Hussein Obama in Fort Hood, Texas, we were struck by how unemotional he is to tragedy. That is, Obama appears to be genuinely mourning the victims of the brutal jihad-inspired massacre that left 13 dead; but even now, he refuses to understand the gravity of the events and underlying reasons that led to this terrorist attack on America’s valiant soldiers To Obama, terrorism and Islamist jihad are words stricken from his presidential lexicon. Without these words, you cannot adequately understand these brutal events on America’s homeland. Jihad flows from very specific Islamic teachings. This attack was a premeditated act of unspeakable terrorism, including the ritual pre-jihad (pre-attack) cleansing routine caught in part on convenience store cameras. Politically correct denial of Islam’s role in this bloodletting is foolish and dangerous. And Obama and his administration will not be able to protect us against further similar acts if they continually refuse to admit reality.
What is the evidence to substantiate our claims?
The FBI knew that Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan had communicated with a radical, extremist imam nearly a year before the attack. Yet, they wrongly determined the Army officer was no threat. Why was he categorized as no threat? What official or officials cleared him? For what reason did they clear him?
We have learned from Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, that the Obama administration knew months ago that Hasan and the radical Yemeni imam “had exchanged 10 to 20 e-mails.”
The imam influencing the Muslim shooter is Anwar al-Awlaki. He was released from a jail in Yemen last year. Al-Awlaki writes an anti-American blog that repeatedly denounces the war on terror. He presided at the mosque in Falls Church, Va., that Hasan attended, a center known for radical Islamic teaching.
When will these radical mosques on American soil be shut down? We expect radical pro-jihad teaching and Islamic-fascism in the Middle East, but we don’t need to accept it in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. We all enjoy freedom of religion, but not the freedom to incite others to violence, which is exactly what is happening in some American mosques.
The news that FBI Director Robert Mueller ordered “an internal investigation into whether the agency mishandled an ‘assessment’ of Hasan” is not enough. This investigation shouldn’t be handled internally. We need an independent investigation to assess why the Obama administration’s intelligence was so inadequate. No cover-ups to protect themselves this time. They’re paid to protect American citizens, not themselves.
Why was no FBI agent still tracking Islamic extremist Hasan’s activities and Web site postings?
Another scary thought. What other targets of investigations have been ruled nonthreats by these same officials who misjudged Hasan?
The Army is under intense pressure from liberals to become politically correct proponents of Islam and other so-called downtrodden minorities. Servicing pet causes of the Washington elite is not, nor has it ever been, the proper role of the military. They are a fighting machine with the very specific job of killing enemies. It is imperative that Americans be better informed about how the Obama administration is changing the military and allowing it to be infiltrated by Islamists.
A number of complaints were made to commanding Army officers about Hasan. What officer in the Army ignored those complaints and cleared Hasan for duty? Since Hasan is a psychiatrist, what was he saying to American soldiers when he counseled them?
According to The Washington Post, Hasan “warned a roomful of senior Army physicians a year and a half ago that to avoid ‘adverse events,’ the military should allow Muslim soldiers to be released as conscientious objectors instead of fighting in wars against other Muslims. As a senior-year psychiatric resident at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Maj. Nidal M. Hasan was supposed to make a presentation on a medical topic of his choosing as a culminating exercise of the residency program. Instead, in late June 2007, he stood before his supervisors and about 25 other mental health staff members and lectured on Islam, suicide bombers and threats the military could encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting in the Muslim countries of Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Clearly, the Army cannot say they didn’t know his views. The innocent souls murdered at Fort Hood will only rest in peace when the politically correct thought police who protected Hasan are court-martialed by the Army — and Obama trashes his rose-colored glasses while he is president.
President Obama needs to throw his “Muslims can do no evil” rose-colored glasses off and see the real world. After listening to remarks by Barack Hussein Obama in Fort Hood, Texas, we were struck by how unemotional he is to tragedy. That is, Obama appears to be genuinely mourning the victims of the brutal jihad-inspired massacre that left 13 dead; but even now, he refuses to understand the gravity of the events and underlying reasons that led to this terrorist attack on America’s valiant soldiers To Obama, terrorism and Islamist jihad are words stricken from his presidential lexicon. Without these words, you cannot adequately understand these brutal events on America’s homeland. Jihad flows from very specific Islamic teachings. This attack was a premeditated act of unspeakable terrorism, including the ritual pre-jihad (pre-attack) cleansing routine caught in part on convenience store cameras. Politically correct denial of Islam’s role in this bloodletting is foolish and dangerous. And Obama and his administration will not be able to protect us against further similar acts if they continually refuse to admit reality.
What is the evidence to substantiate our claims?
The FBI knew that Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan had communicated with a radical, extremist imam nearly a year before the attack. Yet, they wrongly determined the Army officer was no threat. Why was he categorized as no threat? What official or officials cleared him? For what reason did they clear him?
We have learned from Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, that the Obama administration knew months ago that Hasan and the radical Yemeni imam “had exchanged 10 to 20 e-mails.”
The imam influencing the Muslim shooter is Anwar al-Awlaki. He was released from a jail in Yemen last year. Al-Awlaki writes an anti-American blog that repeatedly denounces the war on terror. He presided at the mosque in Falls Church, Va., that Hasan attended, a center known for radical Islamic teaching.
When will these radical mosques on American soil be shut down? We expect radical pro-jihad teaching and Islamic-fascism in the Middle East, but we don’t need to accept it in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. We all enjoy freedom of religion, but not the freedom to incite others to violence, which is exactly what is happening in some American mosques.
The news that FBI Director Robert Mueller ordered “an internal investigation into whether the agency mishandled an ‘assessment’ of Hasan” is not enough. This investigation shouldn’t be handled internally. We need an independent investigation to assess why the Obama administration’s intelligence was so inadequate. No cover-ups to protect themselves this time. They’re paid to protect American citizens, not themselves.
Why was no FBI agent still tracking Islamic extremist Hasan’s activities and Web site postings?
Another scary thought. What other targets of investigations have been ruled nonthreats by these same officials who misjudged Hasan?
The Army is under intense pressure from liberals to become politically correct proponents of Islam and other so-called downtrodden minorities. Servicing pet causes of the Washington elite is not, nor has it ever been, the proper role of the military. They are a fighting machine with the very specific job of killing enemies. It is imperative that Americans be better informed about how the Obama administration is changing the military and allowing it to be infiltrated by Islamists.
A number of complaints were made to commanding Army officers about Hasan. What officer in the Army ignored those complaints and cleared Hasan for duty? Since Hasan is a psychiatrist, what was he saying to American soldiers when he counseled them?
According to The Washington Post, Hasan “warned a roomful of senior Army physicians a year and a half ago that to avoid ‘adverse events,’ the military should allow Muslim soldiers to be released as conscientious objectors instead of fighting in wars against other Muslims. As a senior-year psychiatric resident at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Maj. Nidal M. Hasan was supposed to make a presentation on a medical topic of his choosing as a culminating exercise of the residency program. Instead, in late June 2007, he stood before his supervisors and about 25 other mental health staff members and lectured on Islam, suicide bombers and threats the military could encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting in the Muslim countries of Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Clearly, the Army cannot say they didn’t know his views. The innocent souls murdered at Fort Hood will only rest in peace when the politically correct thought police who protected Hasan are court-martialed by the Army — and Obama trashes his rose-colored glasses while he is president.
‘Skip Florida Condos, Buy Homes in Israel,” US Jews Say
Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu a7 News
Fifty American Jews on a unique visit to Israeli areas claimed by the Palestinian Authority are advising investors to skip over buying condominiums in Florida and to put their money in “our historical homeland.” “Our objective is to send a clear message to Washington and to U.S. President Barack Obama that Jews will continue to live in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria,” New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind said on the first leg of a four-day visit to those areas on Sunday.
Dov Hikind “Instead of investing in properties in Florida, we must consider buying homes in our historical homeland," he said. "We will show the Obama administration that Israel and Jews in the Diaspora will never accept [out orders where to live or where to build in our homeland. American Jews have an important obligation...to buy houses in these areas to secure their security and growth.”
President Obama has been trying to pressure Israel into enforcing a building freeze for Jews, as demanded by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The Netanyahu government has unofficially honored a partial freeze by not approving new projects.
However, thousands of previously approved units are being built in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. In addition, work also has begun on the infrastructure and the first stage of 800 new homes in areas within legal borders of towns where public tenders for construction are not necessary.
The America delegation is to visit the city of Ariel on Monday as well as the Jewish communities near Shechem in the center of Samaria.
On Tuesday, they are scheduled to visit the Gilad Farm outpost, Amona, where the government three years ago carried out a brutal expulsion with mounted police officers on horseback trampling young girls and boys, and Shdema, an area near Bethlehem which nationalist activists have prevented the government from handing over to PA Arabs.
The delegation will wind up its tour on Wednesday with a ceremony to lay a cornerstone at the Nof Etzion Jewish community in eastern Jerusalem.
Shomron (Samaria) Regional Council Chairman Gershon Mesika, who will welcome the visitors on Monday, said that he “hopes that their buying homes is only the first step towards their making aliyah [immigrating to Israe.
David Ha'ivri director of the Shomron Liaison Office noted, "Our office is fully prepared to follow through with all aspects of building and managing these properties for foreign investors and supporters. The homes built and owned by Jews who currently live in the Diaspora will be rented out to young families who are now on waiting lists to join our communities because of lack of available homes. We are currently working on a project with the Jewish community in Australia and expect to sell several before the end of the year."
"Palestinians" to ask UN to recognize "state"
Jihad Watch
The objective here is not so much to get a state, although certainly a Palestinian state would serve as a useful base for their continuing jihad against Israel. (It would also be an international welfare state existing off jizya from the West.) The objective is to gain another resolution from the OIC-dominated UN that would portray Israel as an outlaw state, in violation of international law and consensus. "Palestinians to ask UN to recognise state," by Nasser Abu Bakr for AFP, November 16 (thanks to Sr. Soph):
The Palestinians said Sunday they plan to ask for UN recognition of their independence, amid mounting frustration over the stalled peace process as Israel warned against any unilateral moves.
"We have reached a decision... to go to the UN Security Council to ask for recognition of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital and with June 1967 borders," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
He was referring to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and mostly Arab east Jerusalem that Israel captured during the 1967 Six Day War.
"We're going to seek support from EU countries and Russia and other countries" for the measure, he said.
Erakat's comments came amid growing frustration among the Palestinians with so-far ineffective US efforts to relaunch peace negotiations with Israel that were suspended during the Gaza Strip war at the turn of the year....
The objective here is not so much to get a state, although certainly a Palestinian state would serve as a useful base for their continuing jihad against Israel. (It would also be an international welfare state existing off jizya from the West.) The objective is to gain another resolution from the OIC-dominated UN that would portray Israel as an outlaw state, in violation of international law and consensus. "Palestinians to ask UN to recognise state," by Nasser Abu Bakr for AFP, November 16 (thanks to Sr. Soph):
The Palestinians said Sunday they plan to ask for UN recognition of their independence, amid mounting frustration over the stalled peace process as Israel warned against any unilateral moves.
"We have reached a decision... to go to the UN Security Council to ask for recognition of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital and with June 1967 borders," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
He was referring to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and mostly Arab east Jerusalem that Israel captured during the 1967 Six Day War.
"We're going to seek support from EU countries and Russia and other countries" for the measure, he said.
Erakat's comments came amid growing frustration among the Palestinians with so-far ineffective US efforts to relaunch peace negotiations with Israel that were suspended during the Gaza Strip war at the turn of the year....
Rahm Emanuel, “Source of Pride?” I don’t think so
Thunder and Lightning
By Marc Prowisor
Thunder and Lightning, or in Hebrew – Rahm and Barack, can either bring rains of blessing or a damaging storm. Rahm Emanuel spoke to the General Assembly of Jewish leaders regarding Israel and US involvement in achieving peace between Israel and the Arab occupants of Judea and Samaria. He spoke of his family’s connection to Israel, President Obama’s dedication to peace in the region and how what started in 1967, must end.
What exactly started in 1967? Israel was victorious over the Jordanian Army after we were attacked, and ended the JORDANIAN occupation of the region. This is what started back in 1967. Jewish communities were reborn from the ashes. Once again, Jews were allowed to live in places they were once evicted from, and places where they were massacred. What started? Mr. Emanuel? Jews returned to their biblical heartland, you know this as you were brought up with a religious education. The Chief of Staff spoke of how his Father took the name “Emanuel” in honor of his Uncle who died fighting for Israel, will he show the same courage when the Arabs once again deny the existence of a “Jewish” state?
I could not help but notice the lack of heart Mr. Emanuel had while speaking, his lack of conviction, his detachment from the truth and real situation on the ground in Israel. How easy it is to speak to an assembly full of “yes men” - whose lives are not endangered by the political duels going own. Mr. Emanuel mentioned how the “Two State Solution” enjoys bi-partisan support among US Jewry. I ask myself, whose sons and daughters are serving in the armed forces of Israel and putting themselves on the front lines, defending a people and country with their lives.
Rahm, mentioned not to let “settlements” stand in the way of peace, who is he to decide what is good for Israel, who will clean up the mess he makes, definitely not his sons. Yes, he is the President’s Chief of Staff, a very powerful politician and possibly the mastermind of the current US strategy to endear itself to the Arabs and Muslims of the world. If he believes that the dismantling of the Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria will solve the Israeli-Arab problem, then he probably feels that Major Nidal Malik Hasan is a common criminal and not a terrorist.
It hurts to hear the cheers of the audience as Rahm mentions the issue of “ending” the communities of Judea and Samaria. Most of those at this convention have never been out to any of these places and regard the populous as extremist lunatics. How unfortunate that they don’t even realize who these people really are and how their “Heroes” in the IDF are made up of these people, that these places are theirs also. Such is ignorance. I challenge them to come out here to visit and see what is really going on and meet the people of Judea and Samaria, but to come out with an open mind, sans the poison that they are being fed by the opponents of a strong Jewish nation.
I also extend this invitation to Mr. Emanuel to come out and meet us, not through the eyes of the government, but through your heart and mind. Maybe for your son’s Bar Mitzvah, after he reads the Torah at the Kotel (in the capital of Israel today)? Take him also to Hevron to see where his forefathers are buried, then to Shilo which served as the first capital of Israel, home to the Mishkan (Tabernacle and Ark of the Covenant) for 3690 years!
You spoke of how important your history is to you. Here is a chance to show your family and supporters that you mean what you say. Mr. Emanuel, you are a source of pride to the American Jewish Community with your patriotism, your dedication and your loyalty. I would like to bless you that you also become a source of pride to all of your people, all over the world using the same characteristics.
(I don’t know where Mr. Prowisor obtained his information for this last paragraph. It is certainly not the evaluation of the American Jews that I know. Of course, Prowisor can bless anyone he wants – even Emanuel’s boss) Jsk
marc@friendsofyesha.com
By Marc Prowisor
Thunder and Lightning, or in Hebrew – Rahm and Barack, can either bring rains of blessing or a damaging storm. Rahm Emanuel spoke to the General Assembly of Jewish leaders regarding Israel and US involvement in achieving peace between Israel and the Arab occupants of Judea and Samaria. He spoke of his family’s connection to Israel, President Obama’s dedication to peace in the region and how what started in 1967, must end.
What exactly started in 1967? Israel was victorious over the Jordanian Army after we were attacked, and ended the JORDANIAN occupation of the region. This is what started back in 1967. Jewish communities were reborn from the ashes. Once again, Jews were allowed to live in places they were once evicted from, and places where they were massacred. What started? Mr. Emanuel? Jews returned to their biblical heartland, you know this as you were brought up with a religious education. The Chief of Staff spoke of how his Father took the name “Emanuel” in honor of his Uncle who died fighting for Israel, will he show the same courage when the Arabs once again deny the existence of a “Jewish” state?
I could not help but notice the lack of heart Mr. Emanuel had while speaking, his lack of conviction, his detachment from the truth and real situation on the ground in Israel. How easy it is to speak to an assembly full of “yes men” - whose lives are not endangered by the political duels going own. Mr. Emanuel mentioned how the “Two State Solution” enjoys bi-partisan support among US Jewry. I ask myself, whose sons and daughters are serving in the armed forces of Israel and putting themselves on the front lines, defending a people and country with their lives.
Rahm, mentioned not to let “settlements” stand in the way of peace, who is he to decide what is good for Israel, who will clean up the mess he makes, definitely not his sons. Yes, he is the President’s Chief of Staff, a very powerful politician and possibly the mastermind of the current US strategy to endear itself to the Arabs and Muslims of the world. If he believes that the dismantling of the Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria will solve the Israeli-Arab problem, then he probably feels that Major Nidal Malik Hasan is a common criminal and not a terrorist.
It hurts to hear the cheers of the audience as Rahm mentions the issue of “ending” the communities of Judea and Samaria. Most of those at this convention have never been out to any of these places and regard the populous as extremist lunatics. How unfortunate that they don’t even realize who these people really are and how their “Heroes” in the IDF are made up of these people, that these places are theirs also. Such is ignorance. I challenge them to come out here to visit and see what is really going on and meet the people of Judea and Samaria, but to come out with an open mind, sans the poison that they are being fed by the opponents of a strong Jewish nation.
I also extend this invitation to Mr. Emanuel to come out and meet us, not through the eyes of the government, but through your heart and mind. Maybe for your son’s Bar Mitzvah, after he reads the Torah at the Kotel (in the capital of Israel today)? Take him also to Hevron to see where his forefathers are buried, then to Shilo which served as the first capital of Israel, home to the Mishkan (Tabernacle and Ark of the Covenant) for 3690 years!
You spoke of how important your history is to you. Here is a chance to show your family and supporters that you mean what you say. Mr. Emanuel, you are a source of pride to the American Jewish Community with your patriotism, your dedication and your loyalty. I would like to bless you that you also become a source of pride to all of your people, all over the world using the same characteristics.
(I don’t know where Mr. Prowisor obtained his information for this last paragraph. It is certainly not the evaluation of the American Jews that I know. Of course, Prowisor can bless anyone he wants – even Emanuel’s boss) Jsk
marc@friendsofyesha.com
Gaza disengagement not 'expulsion'
Nov. 16, 2009
Dan Izenberg , THE JERUSALEM POST
The Headquarters for the Salvation of the Nation and the Land cannot use the words "expulsion" or "destruction" to describe 2005's unilateral withdrawal from Gush Katif in paid advertisements on Israel Radio and the Second Authority for Television and Radio's Radio Kol Chai, the High Court of Justice has ruled. The court said the words violated the rules and regulations regarding paid ads of both broadcasting authorities.
"We are talking about a loaded expression on a controversial subject," wrote presiding Justice Elyakim Rubinstein. "The petitioners themselves do not deny this. Therefore the subject falls within the prohibition included in the rules governing both broadcasting authorities."
Israel Radio and the Second Authority rejected an ad submitted by the right-wing petitioner that began, "As we mark three years since the destruction and expulsion from Gush Katif..."
According to another ad, "On the fast of Tisha Be'av and the days around it, we light a memorial candle to mark the expulsion from Gush Katif."
Attorney Aviad Visuli, who represented the petitioner, argued that there was nothing wrong with describing what happened in Gush Katif as an expulsion.
"We are talking about the forced transfer of the residents of Gush Katif by 60,000 soldiers, policemen and others, despite the opposition of more than 95 percent of the residents. According to both international law and the dictionary, the only word that can describe this forced move is 'expulsion,' as opposed to 'uprooting' or 'evacuation,'" he said.
Visuli also argued that logically, if the word "expulsion" had political connotations, so must the word "evacuation."
But Rubinstein insisted that both the rules governing both broadcasting authorities, and previous High Court rulings, made it clear that the authorities were correct in rejecting the paid ads. According to Article 5 of the rules for paid ads and announcements on Israel Radio, "political propaganda or a broadcast regarding a matter that is politically ideologically controversial among the public..." is defined as prohibited advertisement.
The Second Authority rule is similarly worded.
Rubinstein pointed out that in a similar case brought before the High Court, the majority opinion had been that the restrictions on freedom of expression applied by both authorities to paid ads regarding controversial political matters did not violate the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom and were therefore constitutional.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1258027297920&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
Dan Izenberg , THE JERUSALEM POST
The Headquarters for the Salvation of the Nation and the Land cannot use the words "expulsion" or "destruction" to describe 2005's unilateral withdrawal from Gush Katif in paid advertisements on Israel Radio and the Second Authority for Television and Radio's Radio Kol Chai, the High Court of Justice has ruled. The court said the words violated the rules and regulations regarding paid ads of both broadcasting authorities.
"We are talking about a loaded expression on a controversial subject," wrote presiding Justice Elyakim Rubinstein. "The petitioners themselves do not deny this. Therefore the subject falls within the prohibition included in the rules governing both broadcasting authorities."
Israel Radio and the Second Authority rejected an ad submitted by the right-wing petitioner that began, "As we mark three years since the destruction and expulsion from Gush Katif..."
According to another ad, "On the fast of Tisha Be'av and the days around it, we light a memorial candle to mark the expulsion from Gush Katif."
Attorney Aviad Visuli, who represented the petitioner, argued that there was nothing wrong with describing what happened in Gush Katif as an expulsion.
"We are talking about the forced transfer of the residents of Gush Katif by 60,000 soldiers, policemen and others, despite the opposition of more than 95 percent of the residents. According to both international law and the dictionary, the only word that can describe this forced move is 'expulsion,' as opposed to 'uprooting' or 'evacuation,'" he said.
Visuli also argued that logically, if the word "expulsion" had political connotations, so must the word "evacuation."
But Rubinstein insisted that both the rules governing both broadcasting authorities, and previous High Court rulings, made it clear that the authorities were correct in rejecting the paid ads. According to Article 5 of the rules for paid ads and announcements on Israel Radio, "political propaganda or a broadcast regarding a matter that is politically ideologically controversial among the public..." is defined as prohibited advertisement.
The Second Authority rule is similarly worded.
Rubinstein pointed out that in a similar case brought before the High Court, the majority opinion had been that the restrictions on freedom of expression applied by both authorities to paid ads regarding controversial political matters did not violate the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom and were therefore constitutional.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1258027297920&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Fayad: PA 'getting ready for statehood'
Nov. 15, 2009
AP and jpost.com staff , THE JERUSALEM POST
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad on Sunday told members of the Saban Forum in Ramallah he has begun a two-year development plan meant to lay the groundwork for an independent Palestinian state.
His government's goal is "getting ready for statehood," Fayad said, while the Palestine Liberation Organization would decide when to declare independence. Fayad explained he was working to strengthen the Palestinian Authority's institutions and root out corruption so that the PA will get more support should it decide to unilaterally declare independence, Israel Radio reported.
US Senator Joseph Lieberman, who is in Israel for the Saban Forum, a parley devoted to the Middle East and sponsored by Israeli-born American billionaire Haim Saban, told Fayad that the PA would become a more likely partner for Israel in negotiations if its institutions were more robust.
"I know some people are concerned that this is unilateral," Lieberman said, referring to the development plan. "But it seems to me that it is unilateral in a healthy sense of self-development."
While Israeli officials criticized PA negotiator Saeb Erekat's Saturday announcement that the PA may unilaterally ask the UN to recognize a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Erekat reiterated his intention to implement such a plan.
"Now is our defining moment. We went into this peace process in order to achieve a two-state solution," Erekat said. "The endgame is to tell the Israelis that now the international community has recognized the two-state solution on the '67 borders."
Erekat declined to say when the Palestinians would make their appeal to the UN, signaling that the threat may be aimed in large part at putting pressure on Israel.
The Palestinians already declared independence unilaterally on November 15, 1988. The declaration was recognized by dozens of countries, but never implemented on the ground.
Also on Sunday, West Bank officials announced plans to extend the term of PA President Mahmoud Abbas after a recommendation to postpone presidential elections indefinitely.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1258027294555&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
AP and jpost.com staff , THE JERUSALEM POST
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad on Sunday told members of the Saban Forum in Ramallah he has begun a two-year development plan meant to lay the groundwork for an independent Palestinian state.
His government's goal is "getting ready for statehood," Fayad said, while the Palestine Liberation Organization would decide when to declare independence. Fayad explained he was working to strengthen the Palestinian Authority's institutions and root out corruption so that the PA will get more support should it decide to unilaterally declare independence, Israel Radio reported.
US Senator Joseph Lieberman, who is in Israel for the Saban Forum, a parley devoted to the Middle East and sponsored by Israeli-born American billionaire Haim Saban, told Fayad that the PA would become a more likely partner for Israel in negotiations if its institutions were more robust.
"I know some people are concerned that this is unilateral," Lieberman said, referring to the development plan. "But it seems to me that it is unilateral in a healthy sense of self-development."
While Israeli officials criticized PA negotiator Saeb Erekat's Saturday announcement that the PA may unilaterally ask the UN to recognize a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Erekat reiterated his intention to implement such a plan.
"Now is our defining moment. We went into this peace process in order to achieve a two-state solution," Erekat said. "The endgame is to tell the Israelis that now the international community has recognized the two-state solution on the '67 borders."
Erekat declined to say when the Palestinians would make their appeal to the UN, signaling that the threat may be aimed in large part at putting pressure on Israel.
The Palestinians already declared independence unilaterally on November 15, 1988. The declaration was recognized by dozens of countries, but never implemented on the ground.
Also on Sunday, West Bank officials announced plans to extend the term of PA President Mahmoud Abbas after a recommendation to postpone presidential elections indefinitely.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1258027294555&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
PM: We would accept France as a mediator in talks with Syria
Nov. 15, 2009
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST
In a first response to Syria's announcement that it was prepared to resume indirect negotiations with Israel mediated by Turkey, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel would be willing to accept France as a mediator in peace negotiations with Syria. "If France would want to serve as a mediator, we would be willing," Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting.
Netanyahu's statement came after Syrian President Bashar Assad on Friday called for talks to resume with Turkey as a mediator.
The prime minister, however, said Jerusalem did not believe Ankara was objective enough to mediate the talks.
"Israel is prepared to hold negotiations without precondition with the Syrians. I prefer direct talks, but if [they are] with a mediator then it must be fair. The Turkish prime minister [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] has not strengthened his image as an objective, fair mediator," said Netanyahu.
Turkey mediated four rounds of indirect talks with Israel under former prime minister Ehud Olmert. Those efforts were halted when the IDF began Operation Cast Lead at the end of December and were never resumed.
But the Turkish-Israeli relationship has recently become strained, leading to speculation that France could mediate any new talks.
In an interview recorded on Friday afternoon and broadcast on France 2 television on Friday evening, Assad said France could play an important role in getting talks started.
France "should support the role of the Turkish mediator and persuade Israel to return to the negotiating table with the Turkish mediator," he said.
French-Turkish relations however, have also deteriorated, because French President Nicolas Sarkozy is a firm and vocal opponent of EU membership for Turkey. It is not clear whether Paris could have much influence with Ankara.
Tovah Lazaroff and AP contributed to this report
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1258027294857&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST
In a first response to Syria's announcement that it was prepared to resume indirect negotiations with Israel mediated by Turkey, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel would be willing to accept France as a mediator in peace negotiations with Syria. "If France would want to serve as a mediator, we would be willing," Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting.
Netanyahu's statement came after Syrian President Bashar Assad on Friday called for talks to resume with Turkey as a mediator.
The prime minister, however, said Jerusalem did not believe Ankara was objective enough to mediate the talks.
"Israel is prepared to hold negotiations without precondition with the Syrians. I prefer direct talks, but if [they are] with a mediator then it must be fair. The Turkish prime minister [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] has not strengthened his image as an objective, fair mediator," said Netanyahu.
Turkey mediated four rounds of indirect talks with Israel under former prime minister Ehud Olmert. Those efforts were halted when the IDF began Operation Cast Lead at the end of December and were never resumed.
But the Turkish-Israeli relationship has recently become strained, leading to speculation that France could mediate any new talks.
In an interview recorded on Friday afternoon and broadcast on France 2 television on Friday evening, Assad said France could play an important role in getting talks started.
France "should support the role of the Turkish mediator and persuade Israel to return to the negotiating table with the Turkish mediator," he said.
French-Turkish relations however, have also deteriorated, because French President Nicolas Sarkozy is a firm and vocal opponent of EU membership for Turkey. It is not clear whether Paris could have much influence with Ankara.
Tovah Lazaroff and AP contributed to this report
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1258027294857&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
Think Tank: “U.S. Aids Terror Group At War With Israel”
Samuel Sokol
5 Towns Jewish Times
PA forces in Ramallah.
A new report released by the Center for Near East Policy Research, a Jerusalem based think-tank, discusses the possible connection between American military aid and Palestinian terrorism. The report, “Implications of U.S. Military Training of Palestinian Security Forces,” was authored by center chairman David Bedein and deals with the Office of the U.S. Security Coordinator (USSC), run by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton.
http://www.israelbehindthenews.com/library/pdfs/Assessment_of_US_Military_Aid_to_Fatah_US.pdf
Established in 2005, the USSC manages a multinational team of advisors, whose role is to restructure the PA security forces and train personnel. American tax dollars pay for advanced military and constabulary training for the Palestinian security forces at bases in Jericho in Israel and Giftlik in Jordan. The cost of training an entire battalion of National Security Forces (NSF) troops in Jordan is $11 million.
Since 2008 approximately 2,100 troops, enough to make four battalions, have been trained by Americans in Jordan. The American government utilizes advisors from the DynCorp International Corporation for training Palestinian forces. Soldiers enrolled in American training programs are vetted for terrorist links by the Palestinian Authority, American intelligence and the Israel General Security Services (Shabak). However, there is evidence that many people in the Palestinian security apparatus are also members of banned terror groups.
The report elaborates. “Salam Fayyad, PA prime minister, reached an agreement with the forces of Al-Aqsa Brigades…not to arrest them as long as they maintained a low profile. Al-Aqsa people are sheltered and receive salaries from Fayyad. When PA security troops were deployed in Nablus, Al-Aqsa people who had not been trained in Jordan and were not vetted received command positions. This included one individual who had engaged in extortion.”
Some members of the Israeli political and military establishment have expressed their support for General Dayton and his program, citing a decline in terror in Judea and Samaria. In contrast, Bedein writes that the willingness to work with Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades indicates that the Palestinian Authority is not, in principal, opposed to the use of violence. Operations mounted by PA forces are most often aimed at destroying Fatah rival Hamas, rather than in reducing terrorism.
Bedein told the Five Towns Jewish Times, “The reduction of terrorism from Judea and Samaria is because of the success of Operation Defensive Shield, launched in April 2002, which placed IDF troops in strategic positions to patrol and surround every possible Arab terror stronghold, so as to prevent terror attacks.”
“Ever wonder why the shelling stopped from Beit Jalla on Gilo in Jerusalem? For only one reason: Simply put, the IDF took back Beit Jalla, quietly and without fanfare.”
Fatah recently has been attempting to reconcile with Hamas, creating the possibility of American trained forces being merged into joint units with Hamas fighters.
There is also a risk of American trained forces turning on Israel. As Abbas stated, he “reserve[s] the right to resistance” if negotiations do not turn out the way he likes. This occurred during the second intifada when Yasser Arafat had failed to gain his demands by negotiations. During that period, American training was also used against Israeli civilian targets...
In the report, Bedein commented that human rights have not improved in the Palestinian Authority since the inception of the program. “Palestinian and other human rights organizations report brutality, torture, and arbitrary arrest by those PA security forces trained by both the United States and European Union.”
General Dayton looks on his Palestinian charges with pride. During a military ceremony, he announced to Palestinian forces that he “couldn’t be more proud of the fact that you stepped up to be the founders of a Palestinian state.”
However, the nature of that state remains to be seen. A new plan for Palestinian statehood, written by PM Fayyad, discusses restoring unity with Gaza [Hamas] and of implementing Sharia law.
The report quotes a “prominent Palestinian journalist” as saying that the association between the Americans and Fatah could give Hamas a boost in the polls in the next election. This would certainly prove detrimental to efforts to create a demilitarized Palestinian state as envisioned by Benjamin Netanyahu. Moreover, every officer in the Palestinian forces is required to swear an oath of allegiance to Fatah. This had led to “elite PA forces trained in Jordan [being] unwilling to stop Fatah militia operations, including extortion and abductions.”
Israeli Maj. Gen. (Res.) Ya’akov Amidror commented regarding the Palestinian security forces’ efforts to reduce terror. “There is a huge difference in the Palestinian view between law enforcement, which is seen as legitimate, and anti-terrorism, which is not seen as legitimate…The U.S. confuses the two.”
In the report, Dr. Mordechai Kedar of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University is quoted as saying that American trained forces cannot be expected to fight against terror when members of their own clans participate in terror organizations. “…When (not if) there will be domestic problems in the PA/Palestinian State these people will be loyal primarily to their clan [Arabic: hamula] rather than to the state, since they will never shoot their brothers or cousins… you can surely say that their loyalty will be according to the context of the event in which their participation will be required.”
Dr. Kedar spoke with the Five Towns Jewish Times regarding the USSC and its role in the peace process. “On one side, it [the USSC] is good because it strengthens those sectors that might work with Israel, especially the security forces. But on the other side, no one can guarantee that these weapons which the Americans are giving those Palestinians will not be turned against Israel,” Kedar stated.
When asked about the unwillingness of American trained forces to act against the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Kedar responded by saying that the PA forces “can become very easily a terror group against Israel…with all respect to Dayton and his efforts, this is a mine which is being implanted in this area...I’m pretty sure that they will be the front power against Israel when the day comes.” Asked if he believed that American training will be used in a war scenario against Israel, Kedar responded in the affirmative.
Bedein’s research indicates that current aid to the Palestinian security forces is in direct contravention of American law. Congress, in making appropriations for Palestinian training, instituted a caveat, “None of the funds appropriated by this act may be provided to support a Palestinian state unless the Secretary of State determines and certifies to the appropriate congressional committees that…the elected governing entity of a new Palestinian state…is taking appropriate measures to counter terrorism and terrorist financing in the West Bank and Gaza, including the dismantling of terrorist infrastructures…”
Continued Palestinian Authority support for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades means that it would be impossible for the Secretary of State to honestly certify that this provision has been met. According to a 2005 Congressional Research Service report, “Congress wants to ensure that U.S. assistance is used for legitimate humanitarian projects and that no U.S. aid is diverted for military or terrorist use against Israel.”
Bedein recently traveled to Washington to present his report’s findings. He spoke with staffers of 25 key members of the U.S. Senate and House and presented copies of his report to make them aware that, in his words, “U.S. military aid to Fatah may backfire.”
Despite being cleared for terrorist ties, some recipients of American training are former leaders of banned terror groups that have received amnesty from Israel as a gesture to build up Mahmoud Abbas...
5 Towns Jewish Times
PA forces in Ramallah.
A new report released by the Center for Near East Policy Research, a Jerusalem based think-tank, discusses the possible connection between American military aid and Palestinian terrorism. The report, “Implications of U.S. Military Training of Palestinian Security Forces,” was authored by center chairman David Bedein and deals with the Office of the U.S. Security Coordinator (USSC), run by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton.
http://www.israelbehindthenews.com/library/pdfs/Assessment_of_US_Military_Aid_to_Fatah_US.pdf
Established in 2005, the USSC manages a multinational team of advisors, whose role is to restructure the PA security forces and train personnel. American tax dollars pay for advanced military and constabulary training for the Palestinian security forces at bases in Jericho in Israel and Giftlik in Jordan. The cost of training an entire battalion of National Security Forces (NSF) troops in Jordan is $11 million.
Since 2008 approximately 2,100 troops, enough to make four battalions, have been trained by Americans in Jordan. The American government utilizes advisors from the DynCorp International Corporation for training Palestinian forces. Soldiers enrolled in American training programs are vetted for terrorist links by the Palestinian Authority, American intelligence and the Israel General Security Services (Shabak). However, there is evidence that many people in the Palestinian security apparatus are also members of banned terror groups.
The report elaborates. “Salam Fayyad, PA prime minister, reached an agreement with the forces of Al-Aqsa Brigades…not to arrest them as long as they maintained a low profile. Al-Aqsa people are sheltered and receive salaries from Fayyad. When PA security troops were deployed in Nablus, Al-Aqsa people who had not been trained in Jordan and were not vetted received command positions. This included one individual who had engaged in extortion.”
Some members of the Israeli political and military establishment have expressed their support for General Dayton and his program, citing a decline in terror in Judea and Samaria. In contrast, Bedein writes that the willingness to work with Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades indicates that the Palestinian Authority is not, in principal, opposed to the use of violence. Operations mounted by PA forces are most often aimed at destroying Fatah rival Hamas, rather than in reducing terrorism.
Bedein told the Five Towns Jewish Times, “The reduction of terrorism from Judea and Samaria is because of the success of Operation Defensive Shield, launched in April 2002, which placed IDF troops in strategic positions to patrol and surround every possible Arab terror stronghold, so as to prevent terror attacks.”
“Ever wonder why the shelling stopped from Beit Jalla on Gilo in Jerusalem? For only one reason: Simply put, the IDF took back Beit Jalla, quietly and without fanfare.”
Fatah recently has been attempting to reconcile with Hamas, creating the possibility of American trained forces being merged into joint units with Hamas fighters.
There is also a risk of American trained forces turning on Israel. As Abbas stated, he “reserve[s] the right to resistance” if negotiations do not turn out the way he likes. This occurred during the second intifada when Yasser Arafat had failed to gain his demands by negotiations. During that period, American training was also used against Israeli civilian targets...
In the report, Bedein commented that human rights have not improved in the Palestinian Authority since the inception of the program. “Palestinian and other human rights organizations report brutality, torture, and arbitrary arrest by those PA security forces trained by both the United States and European Union.”
General Dayton looks on his Palestinian charges with pride. During a military ceremony, he announced to Palestinian forces that he “couldn’t be more proud of the fact that you stepped up to be the founders of a Palestinian state.”
However, the nature of that state remains to be seen. A new plan for Palestinian statehood, written by PM Fayyad, discusses restoring unity with Gaza [Hamas] and of implementing Sharia law.
The report quotes a “prominent Palestinian journalist” as saying that the association between the Americans and Fatah could give Hamas a boost in the polls in the next election. This would certainly prove detrimental to efforts to create a demilitarized Palestinian state as envisioned by Benjamin Netanyahu. Moreover, every officer in the Palestinian forces is required to swear an oath of allegiance to Fatah. This had led to “elite PA forces trained in Jordan [being] unwilling to stop Fatah militia operations, including extortion and abductions.”
Israeli Maj. Gen. (Res.) Ya’akov Amidror commented regarding the Palestinian security forces’ efforts to reduce terror. “There is a huge difference in the Palestinian view between law enforcement, which is seen as legitimate, and anti-terrorism, which is not seen as legitimate…The U.S. confuses the two.”
In the report, Dr. Mordechai Kedar of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University is quoted as saying that American trained forces cannot be expected to fight against terror when members of their own clans participate in terror organizations. “…When (not if) there will be domestic problems in the PA/Palestinian State these people will be loyal primarily to their clan [Arabic: hamula] rather than to the state, since they will never shoot their brothers or cousins… you can surely say that their loyalty will be according to the context of the event in which their participation will be required.”
Dr. Kedar spoke with the Five Towns Jewish Times regarding the USSC and its role in the peace process. “On one side, it [the USSC] is good because it strengthens those sectors that might work with Israel, especially the security forces. But on the other side, no one can guarantee that these weapons which the Americans are giving those Palestinians will not be turned against Israel,” Kedar stated.
When asked about the unwillingness of American trained forces to act against the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Kedar responded by saying that the PA forces “can become very easily a terror group against Israel…with all respect to Dayton and his efforts, this is a mine which is being implanted in this area...I’m pretty sure that they will be the front power against Israel when the day comes.” Asked if he believed that American training will be used in a war scenario against Israel, Kedar responded in the affirmative.
Bedein’s research indicates that current aid to the Palestinian security forces is in direct contravention of American law. Congress, in making appropriations for Palestinian training, instituted a caveat, “None of the funds appropriated by this act may be provided to support a Palestinian state unless the Secretary of State determines and certifies to the appropriate congressional committees that…the elected governing entity of a new Palestinian state…is taking appropriate measures to counter terrorism and terrorist financing in the West Bank and Gaza, including the dismantling of terrorist infrastructures…”
Continued Palestinian Authority support for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades means that it would be impossible for the Secretary of State to honestly certify that this provision has been met. According to a 2005 Congressional Research Service report, “Congress wants to ensure that U.S. assistance is used for legitimate humanitarian projects and that no U.S. aid is diverted for military or terrorist use against Israel.”
Bedein recently traveled to Washington to present his report’s findings. He spoke with staffers of 25 key members of the U.S. Senate and House and presented copies of his report to make them aware that, in his words, “U.S. military aid to Fatah may backfire.”
Despite being cleared for terrorist ties, some recipients of American training are former leaders of banned terror groups that have received amnesty from Israel as a gesture to build up Mahmoud Abbas...
Saying goodbye to mom
Cool welcome to Bibi may hint of upcoming US withdrawal from Mideast mess
Asaf Gefen
YNET News
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was received in Washington this week with the honors reserved for an especially embarrassing relative. The kind of relative you were forced to meet – after all, he’s part of the family and mom really asked you to do it – but you made sure to meet him in a place nobody knows, so no one will see you. The White House has not seen such secretive visit since the summit meetings between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Obama, on his part, spared no effort in making clear that he would have preferred a face-to-face meeting with suspected murderer Damian Carlik, who killed a family of six south of Tel Aviv, than with Israel’s prime minister.
However, it seems that something bigger is going on around here. As hinted this week by journalist Thomas Friedman, the Americans are closer than ever to reaching the understanding that they would sleep well at night even without the Mideastern food poisoning, and that they have better things to do in life than playing the role of babysitter for us and the Palestinians (two children that no amount of Ritalin is enough for.)
One can understand them, and also our own abandonment anxiety. The departure of the Americans, which would come on top of our already unsteady international status, would reinforce our position as a global pariah that any civilized person would better stay away from and push us even deeper into our own bunker. Not to mention the economic implications of the affair gone awry with our American sugar daddy.
Taking responsibility for our actions
And as to the migraine known as “the peace process” around here, detachment from the responsible adult in America may constitute a fresh change. After years where we got used to an international nanny that changed our diaper every time things got too smelly, the time has come for us and our lovely neighbors to take responsibility for our actions.
For how many more years can we expect others to resolve our problems for us? Until what age will we continue to go on dates accompanied by our parents?
In-depth thinking about the reality of a Middle East without a foreign mediator that will force solutions upon us, and the emergence of a space where we and our Arab neighbors manage things on our own and address the difficulties and disputes our way, raises a specter of opportunities and possible scenarios – all of which can be summed up with two words: Mommy, help!
However, this time around, as opposed to the past, even if we call for mom, she won’t be coming.
Asaf Gefen
YNET News
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was received in Washington this week with the honors reserved for an especially embarrassing relative. The kind of relative you were forced to meet – after all, he’s part of the family and mom really asked you to do it – but you made sure to meet him in a place nobody knows, so no one will see you. The White House has not seen such secretive visit since the summit meetings between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Obama, on his part, spared no effort in making clear that he would have preferred a face-to-face meeting with suspected murderer Damian Carlik, who killed a family of six south of Tel Aviv, than with Israel’s prime minister.
However, it seems that something bigger is going on around here. As hinted this week by journalist Thomas Friedman, the Americans are closer than ever to reaching the understanding that they would sleep well at night even without the Mideastern food poisoning, and that they have better things to do in life than playing the role of babysitter for us and the Palestinians (two children that no amount of Ritalin is enough for.)
One can understand them, and also our own abandonment anxiety. The departure of the Americans, which would come on top of our already unsteady international status, would reinforce our position as a global pariah that any civilized person would better stay away from and push us even deeper into our own bunker. Not to mention the economic implications of the affair gone awry with our American sugar daddy.
Taking responsibility for our actions
And as to the migraine known as “the peace process” around here, detachment from the responsible adult in America may constitute a fresh change. After years where we got used to an international nanny that changed our diaper every time things got too smelly, the time has come for us and our lovely neighbors to take responsibility for our actions.
For how many more years can we expect others to resolve our problems for us? Until what age will we continue to go on dates accompanied by our parents?
In-depth thinking about the reality of a Middle East without a foreign mediator that will force solutions upon us, and the emergence of a space where we and our Arab neighbors manage things on our own and address the difficulties and disputes our way, raises a specter of opportunities and possible scenarios – all of which can be summed up with two words: Mommy, help!
However, this time around, as opposed to the past, even if we call for mom, she won’t be coming.
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