"God's Jewish Warriors," hosted by Christiane Amanpour, is one of the most grossly distorted programs CAMERA has encountered on mainstream American television in many years. On August 21, CNN aired Part 1, "God's Jewish Warriors," of its three-part feature entitled "God's Warriors." It is false in its basic premise, established in the opening scene in which Jewish (and Christian) religious fervency is equated with that of Muslims heard endorsing "martyrdom," or suicide-murder. There is, of course, no counterpart among Jews and Christians to the violent jihadist Muslim campaigns underway across the globe, either in the numbers of perpetrators engaged or the magnitude of death and destruction wrought.
While in reality Jewish "terrorism" is virtually non-existent, the program magnifies at length the few instances of violence or attempted violence by religiously-motivated individuals - going back to the early 1980's, for example, to explore a Jewish bombing campaign against a number of West Bank Arab mayors.
Settlements are likewise a key focus of the program, their residents and adherents being deemed "God's warriors" - along with those Americans, Jewish and Christian alike, who support them. American presidents and members of Congress are said to be held hostage to the so-called "Israel Lobby," ostensibly dark forces consisting of AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups who supposedly enable the nefarious expansion of West Bank communities.
Disproportionate reliance on partisan voices, some extreme figures, skews the message dramatically. Jimmy Carter and John Mearsheimer, chief proponents of the discredited canards about Jews subverting American national interests to those of Israel, are repeatedly and respectfully interviewed. Additionally, Charles Percy joins in denouncing Jewish political influence. Only one person, Morris Amitay, is presented as balance on this critical issue.
Whether wittingly or not, Amanpour's program, with its reliance on pejorative labeling, generalities and a stacked lineup of guests, is a perfect illustration of classic propaganda techniques. Unfortunately propaganda is the opposite of journalism, which is the profession Amanpour and CNN are supposed to uphold.
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In Detail
Some of the errors/distortions/omissions include:
Land
Amanpour says: "But it is also Palestinian land. The West Bank - it's west of the Jordan River - was designated by the United Nations to be the largest part of an Arab state."
This is highly deceptive. The United Nations 1947 Partition Plan proposed dividing all the land west of the Jordan into a Jewish state and an Arab state; the Arabs rejected the plan, choosing instead to launch a war to eliminate Israel. Thus, the land did not become "Palestinian land" via this UN Plan. Likewise, UN Security Council Resolution 242, passed after the Six Day War, underscored that territorial adjustments related to the West Bank were to be expected.
Settlements
* Amanpour suggests settlements are the cause of Arab anger: "the Jewish settlements have inflamed much of the Arab world," yet the Arab world was just as anti-Israel (actually more so) before the settlements were built. Recall that organized Arab terror against Jews began in 1920.
* She presents at length the views of Theodor Meron asserting the illegality of settlements as the definitive word, but makes no mention of more senior Israeli experts such as former Supreme Court Chief Meir Shamgar, who disagreed with Meron. Nor does Amanpour mention foreign experts such as Professors Julius Stone and Eugene Rostow who also argued that the settlements were legal. See for example From "Occupied Territories" to "Disputed Territories" by Dore Gold.
* She grossly misleads about America's position on settlements in the following sequence:
WILLIAM SCRANTON, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: My government believes that international law sets the appropriate standards.
AMANPOUR: From the earliest days of the settler movement, even the United States, Israel's closest ally, blasted Israel's settlement policy.
SCRANTON: Substantial resettlement of the Israeli civilian population in occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, is illegal.
AMANPOUR: Ever since American presidents both Democrat and Republican have spoken from virtually the same script. They consistently oppose settlement growth.
RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT: The United States will not support the use of any additional land for the purpose of settlements.
In fact, Reagan said: "As to the West Bank, I believe the settlements there -- I disagreed when the previous Administration referred to them as illegal, they're not illegal" (NYTimes, Feb. 3, 1981). Others did not deem settlements "illegal."
*Amanpour continuously discounts the context of the Arab world. She says with regard to the post Six-Day War period: "But the Israeli government was divided - trade the captured land for peace or keep it and build Jewish settlements." Unmentioned is the Arab refusal to "trade" anything for peace as embodied in the three "no's" delivered by Arab leaders at a summit in Khartoum shortly after the Six-Day War, declaring there would be no negotiation, no recognition and no peace with Israel.
Jerusalem/Temple Mount
Amanpour says: "It was from here, according to Muslim scripture, that the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven around the year 630. But Hebrew scripture puts the ancient Jewish Temple in the same location, destroyed by the Romans in the year 70. For the next 1,900 years, even the last remnant of the Temple known as the Wailing Wall, or the Western Wall, was lost to the Jews."
a) Muslim scripture doesn't refer to Jerusalem, it refers to Mohammed ascending to heaven from the "farthest mosque," which could not have been on the Temple Mount, since the mosque there wasn't built until well after the death of Mohammed.
b) The Western Wall isn't a remnant of the Temple, it is merely a retaining wall built to extend and flatten the Temple Mount. And there are indeed actual remains of the First and Second Temples on the Temple Mount.
c) Although Amanpour notes the holiness of the Temple Mount to Jews and Muslims, and some Jews in clips say that it is the holiest site for Jews, she never points this out herself, nor does she mention that Hebron is Judaism's second holiest city with its second holiest shrine.
d) Amanpour interviews the Muslim Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to give a Muslim perspective on the Al Aqsa Mosque, but no Jewish rabbinical figure is presented to discuss the paramount religious importance of the Temple Mount to Jews.
Carter
* Amanpour states: "Most recently, former President Carter was criticized for criticizing Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. In his book, 'Palestine: Peace, not Apartheid.' "
Carter was, of course, "criticized" for purveying multiple false statements about Israel and the Palestinians.
* In the interview with Amanpour, Carter claims that no American politician could survive politically while calling for settlement-related aid cuts to Israel: "There's no way that a member of Congress would ever vote for that and hope to be re-elected."
That would be news to politicians like Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, who has long been a critic of aid to Israel and opposed loan guarantees to Israel in 1992. As well, contrary to Amanpour and Carter's statements, Representatives James Trafficante, Dana Rohrabacher, Nick Smith, Fortney Pete Stark, Neil Abercrombie, David E. Bonior, John Conyers Jr, John D. Dingell, Earl F. Hilliard, Jesse L. Jackson Jr., Barbara Lee, Jim McDermott, George Miller, Jim Moran, David R. Obey, Ron Paul and Nick J. Rahall II, have voted against aid to Israel and/or opposed other resolutions favoring Israel.
Muslim "anger"
Gorenberg: "You can't understand the anger of radical Islam unless you understand the conflict between you know, the Jews and the Palestinians."
The implication is that such "anger" is primarily rooted in the Israeli-Palestinian issue, disregarding the far greater forces driving radical Islam, including the titanic struggle between Shiites and Sunnis triggered in large measure by the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, the Khomenist revolution and the expansion of Saudi Wahabism. Saudi-sponsored mosques and schools built all over the globe inculcate vast numbers of Muslims with extreme, supremacist views.
As even the Ayatollah Khomeini put it, the United States was the "Great Satan," while Israel was only the "Small Satan."
And of course, the rise of the Internet and satellite TV has greatly expanded the reach of the Muslim supremacist propagandists who do so much to inflame the Muslim masses.
The program contained many more distortions, errors and comments lacking key context. Keep an eye on CAMERA's Web site for an expanded article on the series.
Please write/call CNN! The Action Items are right after the "In Brief" section above.
watch this on Youtube; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkKhPLAyDsM
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Peres: Olmert, Abbas in 'serious' talks
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is holding "serious discussions" with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in an effort to put together an agreement of principles before a regional conference to be held in November, President Shimon Peres said Wednesday. Peres's comments came during a meeting with outgoing UN Middle East envoy Michael Williams. Peres's comments came the same day that Abbas said Israel's intensified operations in the Gaza Strip raised doubts about the country's desire to make peace with the Palestinians.
IAF air strikes on Gaza over the last three days killed 13 Palestinians, including a senior Hamas commander and three Islamic Jihad men.
In a statement released by Abbas's office, the chairman asserted that Israel's continued policy would ensure that the negotiations and the peace process bear no fruit.
Peres also told Williams that Israel should not get involved in the internal Palestinian dispute between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank.
Olmert has said that in his recent meetings with Abbas there was a discussion about "fundamental principles," with widespread speculation - not confirmed by the Prime Minister's Office - that the goal was to come up with an agreement of principles for the establishment of a Palestinian state on some 90 percent of the West Bank and Gaza.
Western diplomatic officials, however, have in recent days lowered expectations regarding the conference, which US President George W. Bush declared would take place some time in the autumn, and be chaired by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The officials said that few expect that Olmert and Abbas - in the next few weeks - would be able to reach any kind of agreement on issues that have eluded the two sides for so long: borders, refugees and Jerusalem.
Rather, the officials said, what was more realistic was that the two would come up with an agreement on "a way to move forward." What this meant, they said, was that Israel and the PA would likely agree at the regional conference on future meetings where the core issues would be hashed out.
"Any agreement reached before the conference will be about the need to keep talking, not substance," the officials said.
The officials warned against expecting a big breakthrough. "The idea is to get together in front of other parties whose good graces you want, and then push things along slowly," they said.
Among the other parties that both the US and Israel want to see at the table are the Saudis, and the officials said the US was quietly trying to make sure that the Saudis do attend the meeting. The US believes that bringing countries like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to the conference would both formally consolidate a coalition of moderate states, and also lead to more public support in Israel for diplomatic moves.
Rice is expected to come back to the region, she was here some three weeks ago, in mid-September to, among other things, discuss the regional gathering. So far, there has been no announcement of when or where the gathering would take place, nor who would be involved. Williams, meanwhile, is here on his final visit as UN envoy. He was recently appointed Britain's Middle East envoy, a position he will take up in September. No replacement for Williams at the UN has yet been announced.
IAF air strikes on Gaza over the last three days killed 13 Palestinians, including a senior Hamas commander and three Islamic Jihad men.
In a statement released by Abbas's office, the chairman asserted that Israel's continued policy would ensure that the negotiations and the peace process bear no fruit.
Peres also told Williams that Israel should not get involved in the internal Palestinian dispute between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank.
Olmert has said that in his recent meetings with Abbas there was a discussion about "fundamental principles," with widespread speculation - not confirmed by the Prime Minister's Office - that the goal was to come up with an agreement of principles for the establishment of a Palestinian state on some 90 percent of the West Bank and Gaza.
Western diplomatic officials, however, have in recent days lowered expectations regarding the conference, which US President George W. Bush declared would take place some time in the autumn, and be chaired by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The officials said that few expect that Olmert and Abbas - in the next few weeks - would be able to reach any kind of agreement on issues that have eluded the two sides for so long: borders, refugees and Jerusalem.
Rather, the officials said, what was more realistic was that the two would come up with an agreement on "a way to move forward." What this meant, they said, was that Israel and the PA would likely agree at the regional conference on future meetings where the core issues would be hashed out.
"Any agreement reached before the conference will be about the need to keep talking, not substance," the officials said.
The officials warned against expecting a big breakthrough. "The idea is to get together in front of other parties whose good graces you want, and then push things along slowly," they said.
Among the other parties that both the US and Israel want to see at the table are the Saudis, and the officials said the US was quietly trying to make sure that the Saudis do attend the meeting. The US believes that bringing countries like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to the conference would both formally consolidate a coalition of moderate states, and also lead to more public support in Israel for diplomatic moves.
Rice is expected to come back to the region, she was here some three weeks ago, in mid-September to, among other things, discuss the regional gathering. So far, there has been no announcement of when or where the gathering would take place, nor who would be involved. Williams, meanwhile, is here on his final visit as UN envoy. He was recently appointed Britain's Middle East envoy, a position he will take up in September. No replacement for Williams at the UN has yet been announced.
Police break up Islamist meeting in Jerusalem
Officers throw stun grenades on rooftop where meeting between Hamas, Israeli Islamic group took place; Sheikh Raed Salah taken to hospital on stretcher but later released Israeli police broke up what they said was a gathering of Hamas and an Israeli Islamic group in Arab East Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Members of the paramilitary border police threw several stun grenades onto a rooftop where the meeting took place and one of the participants, Sheikh Raed Salah, a prominent Israeli-Arab Islamist leader was taken to hospital on a stretcher but was later released.
Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organization and bans the group and the Palestinian Authority from conducting political activity in east Jerusalem.
Police said in a statement that about 30 people, including Hamas members, took part in the gathering.
After refusing police orders to disperse, “a stun grenade was thrown, and the meeting broke up,” the statement said.
Police did not say whether any arrests were made.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed the area as part of its capital in a move not recognized internationally.
Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of a state they hope to establish in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.
Members of the paramilitary border police threw several stun grenades onto a rooftop where the meeting took place and one of the participants, Sheikh Raed Salah, a prominent Israeli-Arab Islamist leader was taken to hospital on a stretcher but was later released.
Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organization and bans the group and the Palestinian Authority from conducting political activity in east Jerusalem.
Police said in a statement that about 30 people, including Hamas members, took part in the gathering.
After refusing police orders to disperse, “a stun grenade was thrown, and the meeting broke up,” the statement said.
Police did not say whether any arrests were made.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed the area as part of its capital in a move not recognized internationally.
Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of a state they hope to establish in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.
UN envoy calls to open Gaza crossings
Comment:The UN never disappoints its Arab friends and patrons. It continues to misrepresent facts on the ground. We have come to understand that the UN has completely morphed into a pro-Arab, anti-Israel body of "feel good" people. Meanwhile, this same UN who professes to care so much about the "poor people" refuses to confront Hizzbollah and the Lebanese people lose their homes to these terrorists. They put innocent Lebanese civilians in harms way.The same UN who has allowed the Sudan to develop into terror central.We expect nothing more than what follows:
Israel must provide more freedom of movement in the West Bank and open crossings into the Gaza Strip to avoid driving even more Palestinians into poverty in the wake of Hamas's seizure of Gaza two months ago, the United Nations Mideast envoy said Wednesday. . "An elementary constituent of economic development is freedom of movement, and to a very considerable extent that does not exist in the West Bank," Michael Williams said in an interview with The Associated Press and two other media outlets.
Williams praised Israel's recent release of Palestinian prisoners and transfer of millions of dollars in frozen tax funds to President Mahmoud Abbas, who set up a government in the West Bank after Hamas took control of Gaza.
But Williams said he's "concerned that we haven't seen further steps," and urged Israel to release more prisoners and dismantle illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank.
Israel's decision to shut Gaza's borders to all but humanitarian aid in the wake of Hamas's takeover is threatening an already badly damaged economy, and "this shows every sign of getting worse," Williams said.
"We do not see how that can be changed short of opening additional crossing points, particularly Karni," Williams said, referring to Gaza's main cargo crossing with Israel.
Earlier this month, the UN warned that Gaza will soon become entirely dependent on foreign aid and face "disastrous consequences" if the Hamas-run territory remains sealed off. A Palestinian business group warned that at least 120,000 more Gazans could lose their jobs.
Williams said he was concerned by an increase in Israeli killings of militants in Gaza in recent days, as well as by reports of human rights violations by Gaza's new Hamas rulers.
Williams began his tenure as UN special coordinator for the Middle East in May. He said he'll be leaving the job in a few weeks, however, to assume the position of Mideast envoy for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Israel must provide more freedom of movement in the West Bank and open crossings into the Gaza Strip to avoid driving even more Palestinians into poverty in the wake of Hamas's seizure of Gaza two months ago, the United Nations Mideast envoy said Wednesday. . "An elementary constituent of economic development is freedom of movement, and to a very considerable extent that does not exist in the West Bank," Michael Williams said in an interview with The Associated Press and two other media outlets.
Williams praised Israel's recent release of Palestinian prisoners and transfer of millions of dollars in frozen tax funds to President Mahmoud Abbas, who set up a government in the West Bank after Hamas took control of Gaza.
But Williams said he's "concerned that we haven't seen further steps," and urged Israel to release more prisoners and dismantle illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank.
Israel's decision to shut Gaza's borders to all but humanitarian aid in the wake of Hamas's takeover is threatening an already badly damaged economy, and "this shows every sign of getting worse," Williams said.
"We do not see how that can be changed short of opening additional crossing points, particularly Karni," Williams said, referring to Gaza's main cargo crossing with Israel.
Earlier this month, the UN warned that Gaza will soon become entirely dependent on foreign aid and face "disastrous consequences" if the Hamas-run territory remains sealed off. A Palestinian business group warned that at least 120,000 more Gazans could lose their jobs.
Williams said he was concerned by an increase in Israeli killings of militants in Gaza in recent days, as well as by reports of human rights violations by Gaza's new Hamas rulers.
Williams began his tenure as UN special coordinator for the Middle East in May. He said he'll be leaving the job in a few weeks, however, to assume the position of Mideast envoy for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Israeli evening headlines
Hamas official: Abbas launching war in West Bank
Palestinian government plans new law to cut off Hamas funds
Iraq, Syria agree to reopen key oil pipeline
UN envoy demands further Israeli steps
Kassam lands near Negev kibbutz; none wounded
Palestinian government plans new law to cut off Hamas funds
Iraq, Syria agree to reopen key oil pipeline
UN envoy demands further Israeli steps
Kassam lands near Negev kibbutz; none wounded
Islamist Website Design Contest: Winner Fires Missiles at U.S. Army Base in Iraq
Announcements posted on the Islamist Internet forums are usually connected to ongoing terrorist activities, such as claims of responsibility for attacks, recorded speeches by leaders, etc . Occasionally, there are also announcements of a propagandist nature that are difficult to attribute with any certainty to specific terrorist organizations, and whose authenticity is hard to establish, such as the "oath of loyalty to bin Laden" initiative [1], and announcements posted by the Global Islamic Media Front (which has acknowledged that it is not associated with Al-Qaeda). [2]
Contest for Designing a Website for a Terrorist Organization
This is another example of the online propaganda campaign on Islamist forums whose authenticity is difficult to establish.
The information bureau of Jaish Al-Taifa Al-Mansura("The Army of the Victorious Group"), a Sunni terrorist organization operating in Iraq, announced a contest for designing the organization's website, and stated that the prize would be, in addition to reward from Allah, an opportunity to fire missiles via computer at a U.S. army base in Iraq.
The announcement was posted on a number of Islamic websites, primarily on the Al-Hesbah forum www.alhesbah.org [3] [hosted in Texas] [4], and can also be viewed as a Flash document at http://heretic.maid.to/cgi-bin/stored/serio0835.swf
The following are excerpts from the announcement:
"To the brothers who seek reward [from Allah] and to the honorable people [who visit] the forums of the blessed Al-Hesbah network and of the Global Islamic Media Front:
"The information bureau of the Army of the Victorious Group has announced a contest for designing and constructing a special website for the Army. The site must include:
"1. The motto of the Army of the Victorious Group.
"2. The Army's ideology, as posted on the Al-Hesbah network, and the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad about the victorious group. [5]
"3. Communiqués issued by the Army that have been posted on the Al-Hesbah network.
"4. Videos of the Army's operations that have been posted on the Al-Hesbah network.
"In addition, the site must include all materials connected to the Army that have appeared on Al-Hesbah, in newspapers or elsewhere. [The site] must match the good reputation of the Army, of jihad and of the jihad fighters, and [it must] defeat the Crusader information [channels].
"After selecting the best design, the Army's information bureau will notify the winner.
"The contest will continue for a month, and there will be two prizes for the best design:
"1. Reward from Allah for blessed work in the service of jihad and the jihad fighters.
"2. The winner will fire three long-range missiles from any location in the world at an American army base in Iraq, by pressing a button [on his computer] with his own blessed hand, using technology developed by the jihad fighters, Allah willing. The information bureau will announce the winner after coordinating with the military bureau of the Army...
"Dear brothers in Allah, this blessed move aims to develop the skills and abilities of the brothers who take part in the competition [by inviting them] to design a website which befits the Army's good reputation, its jihad operations and its fighting [activities].
"The most important thing is the glad tidings that the jihad fighters of the Army of the Victorious Group bring to our Muslim brothers, and to the [entire] Islamic nation, regarding the development of accurate and effective missiles, and also, as we promised you, regarding the use of computer technology and [the ability] to fire [missiles] by remote control from any location in the world, by the grace of Allah.
"This is also an opportunity for our brothers outside Iraq to join their brothers on the front line in Iraq, the land of the frontier and of jihad, and to [participate in] destroying the strongholds of polytheism and heresy.
"The winner will be allowed to document his [firing] experience after it is implemented and publicized.
"[Signed:] The Information Bureau of the Army of the Victorious Group; Saturday, November 5, 2005."
Contest Postponed
"On November 18, 2005, the information bureau issued another announcement postponing the contest deadline. [6] This announcement said: 'The information bureau of the Army of the Victorious Group announces a one-month extension of the special contest for designing and constructing the website for the Army of the Victorious Group.'
"The [extension] comes in response to a request from the honorable competitors, and aims to allow the maximum number of brothers to participate in the contest. It also reflects the desire of the Army's top leadership that [individuals] from outside Iraq will participate in jihad operations against the occupier, and that, for the first time, they will do this from the international jihad arena by firing long-range missiles by remote control."
[1] On this private initiative urging Muslims to swear an oath of loyalty to bin Laden, see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 1027: http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=jihad&ID=SP102705.
[2] GIMF public relations bureau director Saif Al-Din Al-Kinani said on the GIMF Internet newscast Sout Al-Khilafa that his organization was not affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
[3] http://www.alhesbah.org/v/showthread.php?t=38119
http://www.alfirdaws.org/forums/showthread.php?t=7600 (Link no longer active).
[4] According to http://www.betterwhois.com/bwhois.cgi?domain=alhesbah.org : Domains by Proxy, Inc., 15511 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353, Scottsdale, AZ 85260, Phone:+1.4806242599
http://www.whois.sc/alhesbah.org traces IP Address 209.120.238.197 to http://www.speedhost.com/ in Texas.
[5] Various hadiths mention the "victorious group," such as the hadith that appears in Ibn Majah's collection of hadiths, in which the Prophet Muhammad says: "A group from my ummah [Islamic nation] is still victorious. Those who separated from them will not harm them until the Day of Resurrection."
[6] http://www.alhesbah.org/v/showthread.php?t=39815
Contest for Designing a Website for a Terrorist Organization
This is another example of the online propaganda campaign on Islamist forums whose authenticity is difficult to establish.
The information bureau of Jaish Al-Taifa Al-Mansura("The Army of the Victorious Group"), a Sunni terrorist organization operating in Iraq, announced a contest for designing the organization's website, and stated that the prize would be, in addition to reward from Allah, an opportunity to fire missiles via computer at a U.S. army base in Iraq.
The announcement was posted on a number of Islamic websites, primarily on the Al-Hesbah forum www.alhesbah.org [3] [hosted in Texas] [4], and can also be viewed as a Flash document at http://heretic.maid.to/cgi-bin/stored/serio0835.swf
The following are excerpts from the announcement:
"To the brothers who seek reward [from Allah] and to the honorable people [who visit] the forums of the blessed Al-Hesbah network and of the Global Islamic Media Front:
"The information bureau of the Army of the Victorious Group has announced a contest for designing and constructing a special website for the Army. The site must include:
"1. The motto of the Army of the Victorious Group.
"2. The Army's ideology, as posted on the Al-Hesbah network, and the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad about the victorious group. [5]
"3. Communiqués issued by the Army that have been posted on the Al-Hesbah network.
"4. Videos of the Army's operations that have been posted on the Al-Hesbah network.
"In addition, the site must include all materials connected to the Army that have appeared on Al-Hesbah, in newspapers or elsewhere. [The site] must match the good reputation of the Army, of jihad and of the jihad fighters, and [it must] defeat the Crusader information [channels].
"After selecting the best design, the Army's information bureau will notify the winner.
"The contest will continue for a month, and there will be two prizes for the best design:
"1. Reward from Allah for blessed work in the service of jihad and the jihad fighters.
"2. The winner will fire three long-range missiles from any location in the world at an American army base in Iraq, by pressing a button [on his computer] with his own blessed hand, using technology developed by the jihad fighters, Allah willing. The information bureau will announce the winner after coordinating with the military bureau of the Army...
"Dear brothers in Allah, this blessed move aims to develop the skills and abilities of the brothers who take part in the competition [by inviting them] to design a website which befits the Army's good reputation, its jihad operations and its fighting [activities].
"The most important thing is the glad tidings that the jihad fighters of the Army of the Victorious Group bring to our Muslim brothers, and to the [entire] Islamic nation, regarding the development of accurate and effective missiles, and also, as we promised you, regarding the use of computer technology and [the ability] to fire [missiles] by remote control from any location in the world, by the grace of Allah.
"This is also an opportunity for our brothers outside Iraq to join their brothers on the front line in Iraq, the land of the frontier and of jihad, and to [participate in] destroying the strongholds of polytheism and heresy.
"The winner will be allowed to document his [firing] experience after it is implemented and publicized.
"[Signed:] The Information Bureau of the Army of the Victorious Group; Saturday, November 5, 2005."
Contest Postponed
"On November 18, 2005, the information bureau issued another announcement postponing the contest deadline. [6] This announcement said: 'The information bureau of the Army of the Victorious Group announces a one-month extension of the special contest for designing and constructing the website for the Army of the Victorious Group.'
"The [extension] comes in response to a request from the honorable competitors, and aims to allow the maximum number of brothers to participate in the contest. It also reflects the desire of the Army's top leadership that [individuals] from outside Iraq will participate in jihad operations against the occupier, and that, for the first time, they will do this from the international jihad arena by firing long-range missiles by remote control."
[1] On this private initiative urging Muslims to swear an oath of loyalty to bin Laden, see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 1027: http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=jihad&ID=SP102705.
[2] GIMF public relations bureau director Saif Al-Din Al-Kinani said on the GIMF Internet newscast Sout Al-Khilafa that his organization was not affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
[3] http://www.alhesbah.org/v/showthread.php?t=38119
http://www.alfirdaws.org/forums/showthread.php?t=7600 (Link no longer active).
[4] According to http://www.betterwhois.com/bwhois.cgi?domain=alhesbah.org : Domains by Proxy, Inc., 15511 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353, Scottsdale, AZ 85260, Phone:+1.4806242599
http://www.whois.sc/alhesbah.org traces IP Address 209.120.238.197 to http://www.speedhost.com/ in Texas.
[5] Various hadiths mention the "victorious group," such as the hadith that appears in Ibn Majah's collection of hadiths, in which the Prophet Muhammad says: "A group from my ummah [Islamic nation] is still victorious. Those who separated from them will not harm them until the Day of Resurrection."
[6] http://www.alhesbah.org/v/showthread.php?t=39815
Knesset president, Dalia Itsik, has accepted the request of ten MKs to hold a special session to discuss the latest decisions of the Education Minister, Yuli Tamir. Tamir has decided to cancel the positions of national service girls in the teaching of Zionism, and to introduce the "Nakba" into the school books of Arab Israelis.
Tehran Baku Building On Commonalities
Comment:Iran continues to build coalitions with its "perceived" neighbors. A wedge is being driven between these neighbors and the USA-this is a prelude to ...
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 21--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, emphasized the need for expanding bilateral ties.
Speaking in the meeting on Sunday, President Ahmadinejad said Iran and Azerbaijan have a common culture, history and civilization, as well as friendly and deep-rooted ties, IRNA reported.
He noted that since the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, Tehran and Baku have worked for enhancement of ties in different areas.
“Any progress by Azerbaijan is tantamount to that of Iran and vice versa,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad noted that Iran welcomes joint cooperation at regional and international levels with Azerbaijan.
Aliyev, for his part, said that he considers Ahmadinejad’s visit to Azerbaijan as important because it will further improve Tehran-Baku relations.
“Memoranda of understanding and negotiations during President Ahmadinejad’s visit will further strengthen relations between two countries,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad arrived in Azerbaijan on Tuesday for his first official two-day visit to the energy-rich ex-Soviet republic and was officially received by his Azeri counterpart at the Presidential Palace.
During his stay in Azerbaijan, Ahmadinejad will hold meetings with Azeri officials and pay homage to the late Azeri President Geidar Aliyev at his tomb.
A joint statement will be issued at the end of the visit and the two countries’ presidents will attend a joint press conference.
Several agreements and a meeting with Iranians based in Azerbaijan are also on the agenda of President Ahmadinejad’s visit.
Analysts believe Ahmadinejad would seek to counter growing US sway in Azerbaijan, wedged between Iran and Russia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, AFP said.
Azerbaijan has close diplomatic and trade relations with Iran. Both the countries are predominantly Shiite Muslim and share strong cultural ties.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and presidential advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi are among senior officials accompanying the president in the visit.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 21--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, emphasized the need for expanding bilateral ties.
Speaking in the meeting on Sunday, President Ahmadinejad said Iran and Azerbaijan have a common culture, history and civilization, as well as friendly and deep-rooted ties, IRNA reported.
He noted that since the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, Tehran and Baku have worked for enhancement of ties in different areas.
“Any progress by Azerbaijan is tantamount to that of Iran and vice versa,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad noted that Iran welcomes joint cooperation at regional and international levels with Azerbaijan.
Aliyev, for his part, said that he considers Ahmadinejad’s visit to Azerbaijan as important because it will further improve Tehran-Baku relations.
“Memoranda of understanding and negotiations during President Ahmadinejad’s visit will further strengthen relations between two countries,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad arrived in Azerbaijan on Tuesday for his first official two-day visit to the energy-rich ex-Soviet republic and was officially received by his Azeri counterpart at the Presidential Palace.
During his stay in Azerbaijan, Ahmadinejad will hold meetings with Azeri officials and pay homage to the late Azeri President Geidar Aliyev at his tomb.
A joint statement will be issued at the end of the visit and the two countries’ presidents will attend a joint press conference.
Several agreements and a meeting with Iranians based in Azerbaijan are also on the agenda of President Ahmadinejad’s visit.
Analysts believe Ahmadinejad would seek to counter growing US sway in Azerbaijan, wedged between Iran and Russia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, AFP said.
Azerbaijan has close diplomatic and trade relations with Iran. Both the countries are predominantly Shiite Muslim and share strong cultural ties.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and presidential advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi are among senior officials accompanying the president in the visit.
Tehran Baku Building On Commonalities
Comment:Iran continues to build coalitions with its "perceived" neighbors. A wedge is being driven between these neighbors andthe USA-this is a prelude to ...
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 21--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, emphasized the need for expanding bilateral ties.
Speaking in the meeting on Sunday, President Ahmadinejad said Iran and Azerbaijan have a common culture, history and civilization, as well as friendly and deep-rooted ties, IRNA reported.
He noted that since the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, Tehran and Baku have worked for enhancement of ties in different areas.
“Any progress by Azerbaijan is tantamount to that of Iran and vice versa,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad noted that Iran welcomes joint cooperation at regional and international levels with Azerbaijan.
Aliyev, for his part, said that he considers Ahmadinejad’s visit to Azerbaijan as important because it will further improve Tehran-Baku relations.
“Memoranda of understanding and negotiations during President Ahmadinejad’s visit will further strengthen relations between two countries,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad arrived in Azerbaijan on Tuesday for his first official two-day visit to the energy-rich ex-Soviet republic and was officially received by his Azeri counterpart at the Presidential Palace.
During his stay in Azerbaijan, Ahmadinejad will hold meetings with Azeri officials and pay homage to the late Azeri President Geidar Aliyev at his tomb.
A joint statement will be issued at the end of the visit and the two countries’ presidents will attend a joint press conference.
Several agreements and a meeting with Iranians based in Azerbaijan are also on the agenda of President Ahmadinejad’s visit.
Analysts believe Ahmadinejad would seek to counter growing US sway in Azerbaijan, wedged between Iran and Russia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, AFP said.
Azerbaijan has close diplomatic and trade relations with Iran. Both the countries are predominantly Shiite Muslim and share strong cultural ties.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and presidential advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi are among senior officials accompanying the president in the visit.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 21--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, emphasized the need for expanding bilateral ties.
Speaking in the meeting on Sunday, President Ahmadinejad said Iran and Azerbaijan have a common culture, history and civilization, as well as friendly and deep-rooted ties, IRNA reported.
He noted that since the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, Tehran and Baku have worked for enhancement of ties in different areas.
“Any progress by Azerbaijan is tantamount to that of Iran and vice versa,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad noted that Iran welcomes joint cooperation at regional and international levels with Azerbaijan.
Aliyev, for his part, said that he considers Ahmadinejad’s visit to Azerbaijan as important because it will further improve Tehran-Baku relations.
“Memoranda of understanding and negotiations during President Ahmadinejad’s visit will further strengthen relations between two countries,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad arrived in Azerbaijan on Tuesday for his first official two-day visit to the energy-rich ex-Soviet republic and was officially received by his Azeri counterpart at the Presidential Palace.
During his stay in Azerbaijan, Ahmadinejad will hold meetings with Azeri officials and pay homage to the late Azeri President Geidar Aliyev at his tomb.
A joint statement will be issued at the end of the visit and the two countries’ presidents will attend a joint press conference.
Several agreements and a meeting with Iranians based in Azerbaijan are also on the agenda of President Ahmadinejad’s visit.
Analysts believe Ahmadinejad would seek to counter growing US sway in Azerbaijan, wedged between Iran and Russia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, AFP said.
Azerbaijan has close diplomatic and trade relations with Iran. Both the countries are predominantly Shiite Muslim and share strong cultural ties.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and presidential advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi are among senior officials accompanying the president in the visit.
Saudi-Syrian tensions seethe over Lebanon
Comment:Saudi explanation of events unfolding herein the Middle East. Please understand the discord that exists among most of the Arab nations-they do not function in solidarity.
DUBAI - Tensions between regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia and Syria are running high because of sharp discord over Lebanon, as the country faces fresh turmoil over a divisive election and a high-profile court case. ARelations have turned decidedly frosty, with Riyadh no longer endorsing a strong role for Damascus in Lebanon, where it held political and military sway for almost three decades, analysts said.
“The Saudi-Syria conflict has already caused us problems, and since it has become an open dispute it will be worse for Lebanon,” said Rafiq Khouri, editor-in-chief of the independent Al Anwar newspaper in Lebanon.
In a tit-for-tat tirade, Syrian Vice President Farouq Sharaa aroused Saudi Arabia’s ire for suggesting that the oil-rich kingdom’s regional influence was almost in a state of paralysis.
Riyadh retorted that Damascus, already in US sights for failing to do enough to end the conflict in neighbouring Iraq, was trying to stoke disorder in the region.
Relations chilled after the assassination of the Saudi-backed Lebanese former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005, which ultimately led to Syria’s humiliating pullout of its troops in Lebanon after a three-decade military presence.
And they deteriorated further last summer when Saudi Arabia implicitly accused the Syria- and Iran-backed Hizbollah of provoking the 34-day war with Israel which devastated Lebanon.
Syrian President Bashar Assad also infuriated Arab leaders when he labelled them “half men” for failing to support Hizbollah.
“Syria wants relations between the two countries to go back to what they were pre-2005,” Saudi analyst Khalid Dakhil said.
“Saudi Arabia is dealing directly with Iran at the moment in addressing the situation in Lebanon, depriving Damascus of its previous middleman role,” he added.
Dakhil said the repercussions of the Hariri killing - blamed by many on Syria - and a planned international tribunal to try the case, as well as differences over Lebanon’s upcoming presidential election, were among the main sources of tension.
“Syria is aiming through this escalation to push Saudi Arabia to put pressure on its allies in Lebanon to make concessions in the presidential issue,” he said.
The Lebanese parliament is set to elect a successor to pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud by November 25 in a highly charged vote which optimists hope can resolve the country’s political impasse, but which pessimists fear will only further cement divisions.
“This dispute between the two most influential states in Lebanon will have a direct impact on the presidential election,” Lebanon’s pro-Syrian newspaper As Safir said.
The latest spat erupted even though the ice appeared to have been broken in March, when Saudi King Abdullah and Assad met on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Riyadh, for the first time since last summer’s war.
But Tariq Homayed, editor of the Saudi daily Asharq Al Awsat, said Syria’s latest outburst reflected the “clear isolation” felt by Damascus as Iran, its main regional ally, appeared to be in constant contact with the Saudis to avert a Sunni-Shiite showdown in Lebanon.
“The Syrian regime does not realise that it has become an instrument in Iran’s hand, and not a major regional player,” he wrote.
Syria has moved to calm the row, with an official saying Sharaa’s statements had been “unjustly distorted” and insisting that Damascus did not want to be “dragged into contests that serve only enemies of the two brotherly countries and the Arab nation.”
DUBAI - Tensions between regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia and Syria are running high because of sharp discord over Lebanon, as the country faces fresh turmoil over a divisive election and a high-profile court case. ARelations have turned decidedly frosty, with Riyadh no longer endorsing a strong role for Damascus in Lebanon, where it held political and military sway for almost three decades, analysts said.
“The Saudi-Syria conflict has already caused us problems, and since it has become an open dispute it will be worse for Lebanon,” said Rafiq Khouri, editor-in-chief of the independent Al Anwar newspaper in Lebanon.
In a tit-for-tat tirade, Syrian Vice President Farouq Sharaa aroused Saudi Arabia’s ire for suggesting that the oil-rich kingdom’s regional influence was almost in a state of paralysis.
Riyadh retorted that Damascus, already in US sights for failing to do enough to end the conflict in neighbouring Iraq, was trying to stoke disorder in the region.
Relations chilled after the assassination of the Saudi-backed Lebanese former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005, which ultimately led to Syria’s humiliating pullout of its troops in Lebanon after a three-decade military presence.
And they deteriorated further last summer when Saudi Arabia implicitly accused the Syria- and Iran-backed Hizbollah of provoking the 34-day war with Israel which devastated Lebanon.
Syrian President Bashar Assad also infuriated Arab leaders when he labelled them “half men” for failing to support Hizbollah.
“Syria wants relations between the two countries to go back to what they were pre-2005,” Saudi analyst Khalid Dakhil said.
“Saudi Arabia is dealing directly with Iran at the moment in addressing the situation in Lebanon, depriving Damascus of its previous middleman role,” he added.
Dakhil said the repercussions of the Hariri killing - blamed by many on Syria - and a planned international tribunal to try the case, as well as differences over Lebanon’s upcoming presidential election, were among the main sources of tension.
“Syria is aiming through this escalation to push Saudi Arabia to put pressure on its allies in Lebanon to make concessions in the presidential issue,” he said.
The Lebanese parliament is set to elect a successor to pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud by November 25 in a highly charged vote which optimists hope can resolve the country’s political impasse, but which pessimists fear will only further cement divisions.
“This dispute between the two most influential states in Lebanon will have a direct impact on the presidential election,” Lebanon’s pro-Syrian newspaper As Safir said.
The latest spat erupted even though the ice appeared to have been broken in March, when Saudi King Abdullah and Assad met on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Riyadh, for the first time since last summer’s war.
But Tariq Homayed, editor of the Saudi daily Asharq Al Awsat, said Syria’s latest outburst reflected the “clear isolation” felt by Damascus as Iran, its main regional ally, appeared to be in constant contact with the Saudis to avert a Sunni-Shiite showdown in Lebanon.
“The Syrian regime does not realise that it has become an instrument in Iran’s hand, and not a major regional player,” he wrote.
Syria has moved to calm the row, with an official saying Sharaa’s statements had been “unjustly distorted” and insisting that Damascus did not want to be “dragged into contests that serve only enemies of the two brotherly countries and the Arab nation.”
Foreign Policy Based On Nat’l Interest
Comment:This is from an Iranian paper-thought you should be aware of the constant message being given to their citizens and surrounding neighbors-why do you think this is so?
TEHRAN, Aug. 21--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday the US aims to establish a global dictatorship. In a meeting with Foreign Ministry officials and Iranian ambassadors, Ayatollah Khamenei noted that the US has revolted against the international community by ignoring the rights of nations.
Stating that securing the national interests is the main goal of Iran’s diplomacy, the leader said, “The important feature of Iran’s foreign policy is its confrontation with the world arrogant powers in a rational and smart manner.“
He pointed out that the experience of the past three decades indicates the victory of Iranian nation in fighting the arrogant world powers.
“We take pride in confronting the arrogant world powers and supporting the oppressed people,“ he said.
Commenting on the performance of the Foreign Ministry, Ayatollah Khamenei said the ministry should uphold national interests and materialize the long-term objectives of the Islamic Revolution and mid-term goals of the 2025 Vision.
Noting that the principles of Islamic Revolution cannot be separated from national identity and interests, the leader opined that important foreign policy issues should be dealt with from this perspective.
Referring to Islam’s comprehensive plan for the prosperity of mankind, Ayatollah Khamenei noted that the 1979 Islamic Revolution aimed to implement political, economic, social and cultural programs of Islam.
“At an international level, the Islamic Revolution rejects foreign domination and pursues peace, security and prosperity of all humans by relying on Islamic teachings,“ he said, pointing out that for the same reason the arrogant world powers are challenging Iran’s Islamic System.
The leader further said that the victory of Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the 33-day war against the Zionist Israeli regime shows the capability of Muslims in fighting the arrogant world powers.
Ayatollah Khamenei said the deadlock faced by the US in its Middle East strategy is a clear example of how Iranians and officials can succeed in their campaign against world arrogant powers.
TEHRAN, Aug. 21--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday the US aims to establish a global dictatorship. In a meeting with Foreign Ministry officials and Iranian ambassadors, Ayatollah Khamenei noted that the US has revolted against the international community by ignoring the rights of nations.
Stating that securing the national interests is the main goal of Iran’s diplomacy, the leader said, “The important feature of Iran’s foreign policy is its confrontation with the world arrogant powers in a rational and smart manner.“
He pointed out that the experience of the past three decades indicates the victory of Iranian nation in fighting the arrogant world powers.
“We take pride in confronting the arrogant world powers and supporting the oppressed people,“ he said.
Commenting on the performance of the Foreign Ministry, Ayatollah Khamenei said the ministry should uphold national interests and materialize the long-term objectives of the Islamic Revolution and mid-term goals of the 2025 Vision.
Noting that the principles of Islamic Revolution cannot be separated from national identity and interests, the leader opined that important foreign policy issues should be dealt with from this perspective.
Referring to Islam’s comprehensive plan for the prosperity of mankind, Ayatollah Khamenei noted that the 1979 Islamic Revolution aimed to implement political, economic, social and cultural programs of Islam.
“At an international level, the Islamic Revolution rejects foreign domination and pursues peace, security and prosperity of all humans by relying on Islamic teachings,“ he said, pointing out that for the same reason the arrogant world powers are challenging Iran’s Islamic System.
The leader further said that the victory of Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the 33-day war against the Zionist Israeli regime shows the capability of Muslims in fighting the arrogant world powers.
Ayatollah Khamenei said the deadlock faced by the US in its Middle East strategy is a clear example of how Iranians and officials can succeed in their campaign against world arrogant powers.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
From Manfred Gerstenfeld: European-Israeli Relations: Between Confusion and Change?
Anti-Israelism and Anti-Semitism in Sweden
Interview with Zvi Mazel "Sweden claims to be a superdemocracy, an example of enlightenment and openness. People with such pretensions should be a little more knowledgeable about Israel, another democracy after all. And yet the average Swedish citizen does not know more than what the country's shallow media tells him. This is often anti-Israeli, and the public is influenced by it."
Zvi Mazel was the Israeli ambassador to Sweden from December 2002 to April 2004. "Before, I had been for five years ambassador to Egypt, where massive hatred of Israel was promoted on a daily basis. We were regularly accused of all that was wrong everywhere in the world. I did not expect to find a somewhat similar atmosphere in a democratic country such as Sweden."
During his stay in Stockholm, Mazel developed a critical view of Sweden. Among large parts of the society's elite he encountered a discriminatory attitude and hostility to Israel as well as pseudomorality and arrogance. Sweden's apparent tolerance for rabid anti-Semitism has reinforced his opinion of the country's ruling classes.
Often Hostile Media
"The Swedish media have hardly any investigative function. In that regard their performance compared to the Israeli media is very poor. Issues, including domestic ones, rapidly arise and disappear. The Swedish media's frequent hostility to Israel can partly be explained by the disproportionately large number of journalists who belong or are supporters of the Green and Left parties or the ruling Social Democrats. Jan Guillou, a man who praised Saddam Hussein in his articles and who holds extreme anti-Israeli views, was elected chairman of the Journalists Association-a body that seldom openly criticizes the government.
"A notable exception occurred when Sweden's king, Carl XVI Gustaf, visited Brunei. The king, under Swedish law a figurehead, told his entourage that he considered the Sultan of Brunei an open-minded person who looked after his people. These words led to strong media reactions. How did Sweden's king dare to say this about a 'terrible dictator'?
"The debate on this trivial matter raged for days. The media would never dare to behave similarly against the powerful ruling Social Democrats. They did not have the courage to do so when politicians of the left-wing parties stepped over the line, including financial abuses."
Media Policies
"There is much that is aberrant in the Swedish media world. One day all foreign ambassadors were invited to a meeting by government communication representatives. Some eighty to ninety ambassadors showed up. The head of the state television news department told us, with great arrogance, that they did not interview diplomats. This was not of interest, she said, because diplomats could only express their government's official policy.
"She added that diplomatic representations should not contact the state media for coverage of specific events or countries' independence days. African ambassadors were furious. They have little occasion besides their independence days to draw any attention to their country.
"She furthermore said there were only three international issues of interest for the television: the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Iraq situation in connection to the United States, and relations with neighboring Scandinavian countries. For a democratic country this is an unheard-of attitude and also a sign of how narrow-minded it is.
"She emphasized that the Swedish media are free to publish what they want: 'If they have written against your country, you have no right of reply.' As for the ombudsman, he receives hundreds of complaints per year about the media. He told us that he only takes action on about fifteen cases, ordering that a response should be published. He observed that this was a lengthy procedure." Mazel remarks that in many other democratic countries there is a right of reply.
The Swedish Dailies
Mazel observes: "Among the Swedish dailies, the biggest, Aftonbladet, is the most anti-Israeli. Its editor in chief, Helle Klein, is a descendant of a well-known rabbi but she can find nothing good in Israel and her paper attacks us regularly. During the worst Arab terrorist acts of the intifada, the paper still said Israel was an oppressive colonialist state that behaved entirely unjustly.
"Dagens Nyheter, the more intellectual daily, is also consistently anti-Israeli. It published the worst anti-Semitic article I ever read in a Swedish paper. It was titled 'It Is Permitted to Hate Jews.' The author, Jan Samuelson, who presented himself as an Islam expert, wrote that as long as Israel occupies territories, the Muslim hatred against all Jews is justified. This view entails that any Muslim is entitled to hate a newborn Jewish child anywhere in the world. He did not refer to the genocidal hatred of Jews that existed among Muslims long before the Six Day War.
"Svenska Dagbladet, the other quality newspaper, is also critical of Israel but not as much as the other two. A fourth daily, Expressen, rather a tabloid paper, is usually more balanced. Yet during my stay in Sweden they let an imam of the Stockholm Great Mosque publish a weekly column on Friday. Its text was very different from the violent sermons of the imams in the same mosque."
Preaching Hate in the Mosque
"From friends I used to receive Hamas anti-Semitic material, which is regularly distributed in Stockholm's Great Mosque. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qardawi, an Egyptian Muslim hate-preacher based in Qatar and considered the main theologian of the Muslim Brotherhood, spoke there in 2004. His speech was tantamount to calling for the murder of Israelis. I had complained to the Swedish government even before he came, asking why they let such a well-known hatemonger speak there. I did not even get a reply.
"On this matter the Swedish media initially remained silent. After extracts of Qardawi's talks were published, I wrote to many people in Sweden and distributed his texts. It took some time until one of the leading members of the Liberal Party's young guard wrote an article against the hate preacher. That finally led to some discussion in the Swedish press."
The Social Democrats
Mazel mentions that the Social Democratic Party has been ruling the country since 1932 except for two short interludes. "Since Olof Palme became the Social Democratic leader in 1969 the party has been following an anti-Israeli line, which continues till today." At present the Social Democrats, who lead a minority government, have 144 seats out of 349 in the Riksdag (parliament) and are in an open coalition with the two extreme-Left political parties-the ex-communist Left Party and the Greens, both having a strong anti-Israeli bias. The diplomatic personnel they send to the Swedish representation at the United Nations continue to take anti-Israeli stances and play an important role in encouraging anti-Israeli voting.
"However, one must say that Prime Minister Goran Persson gained much positive publicity when he organized a major international conference on Holocaust education-the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust in January 2000.
"In anticipation of this conference, which was very successful, he had set up a research institute called Living History whose task was and still is to investigate the various aspects of the Holocaust, and which published a book on the Shoah. This excellent work has been translated into many languages and became a textbook for high schools. One of the results of the conference was the formation of a task force of teachers from various countries that would be sent to Yad Vashem for training in Holocaust education.
"In the following years Persson strayed from the centrality of the Holocaust in various other directions. We had major discussions with Swedish diplomats to keep the 2004 conference on Preventing Genocide from becoming highly politicized, focused on contemporary issues, and anti-Israeli.
"Persson's speech at that conference was rather ambivalent. He avoided mentioning the word Islam and did not say a thing about the murderous inclinations and violence of its radical currents. Holocaust Memorial Day, 27 January, fell in the middle of the conference. Persson came to the Great Synagogue in Stockholm and spoke there as he does every year.
"I had been told that in previous years he had made very good speeches. But the one in 2004 was much less so. He hardly mentioned the Holocaust and the Jews. All was very neutral. From the newspapers I learned that on the morning of that same Holocaust Memorial Day, he had gone to visit the Great Mosque. He wanted the media to report the next day on how balanced he was."
The Rise of Swedish Neo-Nazis
"I wondered why Persson had initiated the research into the Holocaust. His main reason seems to have been his worry about the rise of neo-Nazi groups. During World War II there were strong Nazi sympathies in Sweden. Hundreds of Swedes volunteered for the Nazi army in Germany.
"After the war these sympathies did not vanish but were less out in the open. Since the 1960s, Swedish pro-Nazi movements have been on the rise and increasingly problematic. Persson was looking for a way to counter their activities. Someone suggested to him to focus on the Holocaust and arrange a major international conference. He also was advised that this would give him international stature.
"Despite all Persson's efforts the neo-Nazis continue with their gatherings and activities. Rumors are that their number is increasing. There are laws against Nazi incitement and if done openly one can be brought to court. Yet from time to time neo-Nazis demonstrate in the streets of Stockholm and Malm?. On Holocaust Memorial Day in 2003, neo-Nazis demonstrated close to the Stockholm synagogue where the remembrance ceremony was held. The police did not prevent that, of course.
"To the best of my knowledge Persson has never made any strong anti-Israeli statements. Sometimes the media asked him whether he was pro-Israeli; he never answered clearly. The late foreign minister Anna Lindh usually made the most vicious attacks on Israel. Her hatred of Israel can only be described as almost pathological. Under her leadership Sweden published the greatest number of one-sided condemnations of Israel of any EU country. Whenever the IDF reacted to a suicide bombing she issued a 'balanced statement' that condemned both sides. Lindh was stabbed to death in 2003 by a mentally disturbed Swede of Serbian origin.
"The head of the young Social Democrats is of Iranian descent. After he was elected he told the media that the first thing he would do was to urge Persson to take a more anti-Israeli position. There are about half a million Muslims in Sweden, representing 5 percent of the population. They come from a great variety of countries. Sweden remains the most anti-Israeli country in the European Union and also the most pro-Muslim one.
"Despite Persson's personal attitude he has to carry part of the blame for his party's discriminatory stance toward Israel. For decades the Social Democrats helped create the country's anti-Israeli atmosphere. He also has to take responsibility for the behavior of the Swedish International Development Corporation Agency (SIDA), which blames Israel for all the many wrongs in Palestinian society."1
The Mohammed Cartoons
Mazel says: "One proof of the Social Democrats' pro-Muslim attitude came in February 2006 during the international debate on the Mohammed cartoons. No Swedish paper published these, yet the website of a small extreme-Right party, SD-Kuriren, did. The Foreign Ministry gave instructions to the Internet provider to close the site. The government had never before closed any media since the law on press freedom of 1789.
"For a few days the Swedish media wondered how this had been possible. Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds said her ministry had intervened without her knowledge. She had to resign when the media discovered proof of her involvement.
"As the caricatures were already on the Internet, even though hardly anyone had seen them, Sweden sent two Muslim envoys to Muslim countries in order to apologize. Sweden led Europe in this new state of servitude.
"One might say that Social Democratic Sweden is the first European dhimmi state. In Islam those who belong to other monotheistic religions, such as Christians and Jews, are protected by Islam. Yet it is stressed that they are dhimmis, inferior people. As second-class citizens they are often treated poorly, as is true today in many Muslim countries. In some periods they had to pay special taxes, what we would today call protection money. In old times they could not walk on the sidewalk nor ride a donkey, let alone a horse."
Cowardly Media
"To be fair it must be pointed out that the Swedish media are not alone in being cowards. If the European media had more courage, they would constantly expose Muslim violence all over the world. The perpetrators draw motivation directly from Muslim culture. The ongoing mass murders in Iraq demonstrate how widespread violence can be in contemporary Muslim societies. If the European press were really as enlightened as it pretends to be, its editorials would continuously castigate this culture of violence.
"At the beginning of 2006, the Swedish pro-Palestinian organizations held their annual meeting and discussed how to develop their strategy toward Israel. Freivalds spoke at this hate gathering, and was criticized by the press for one day.
"When Freivalds became foreign minister she surprisingly said: 'I am a friend of Israel, though I am also a friend of Palestinians.' For being a friend of Israel she was strongly attacked by many Social Democrats. It took her only a few weeks to adopt the party line and imitate Lindh's statements.
"Israel has very few friends in the Social Democratic Party. The meetings I had with the head of the parliament's foreign affairs committee and with the international secretary of the Social Democrats always entailed accusations from their side.
"Among Foreign Ministry officials one finds outspoken Israel-haters. Some accused us of colonialism and oppression in my conversations with them. They said that they support Israel's existence but oppose our behavior. It was clear that they were pro-Muslim. Several said that the average Swede is an anti-Muslim racist and that it was their task to take the Muslims' side. After Hamas won the Palestinian Authority elections at the beginning of 2006, Sweden gave visas to their representatives. Government officials did not meet with them, but some parliamentarians did."
Other Parties
"Among the opposition parties the Conservatives, Liberals, and Christian Democrats support Israel. Together they have 136 seats. The Center Party is more reserved. Sometimes these parties even collaborated to come out in favor of us. Being the opposition, though, their influence is limited.
"In the Left Party with thirty seats and the Green Party with seventeen there is a universal anti-Israeli attitude. When there is a debate on the Middle East they express an abysmal hatred, which one also finds in their papers. One Green parliamentarian came to Israel together with people from the International Solidarity Movement. He threw stones at the security fence together with Palestinians and was finally evicted from Israel. Initially the Swedish media criticized Israel but later they were more understanding.
"Despite all this I tried to meet the leaders of these parties. My secretary's calls were never returned. There are also a number of extreme-Left extraparliamentary groups. Although not so strong numerically, the extreme Left is very active.
"Many NGOs collaborate with the extreme Left and march with the pro-Palestinians. They would regularly organize demonstrations in front of the Israeli embassy. They would even throw excrement at the building. In Sweden that is apparently permissible. The police let them advance almost to the wall of the embassy.
"This is the common police attitude. In March 2004, I attended a gala evening of the Keren Hayesod that opened the fundraising season. It was held in Nalen Hall, one of the nicer ones in town. Suddenly the security officer of the Israeli embassy entered. Hundreds of protesters, Muslims and extreme leftists, were demonstrating outside and trying to break into the hall and the police did not seem able to block them.
"I told him that I could not leave the audience alone, most of which were non-Jewish friends of Israel. It also seemed to me that the police would not let matters get totally out of hand. Later the public was made to leave through a side door. The following year the owners of the hall refused to rent it again to Keren Hayesod. The violence had intimidated them."
The Lutheran Church
"For about a decade the Lutheran church has no longer been the state church. Its head, Archbishop Hammar, is a well-known Israel-hater. I had barely arrived as ambassador when I learned from the papers that he had gathered seventy Swedish intellectuals to sign a petition to boycott Israeli goods, particularly those that come from the territories. They also wanted to suspend the EU's association agreement with Israel. Even Anna Lindh was not ready to go that far and did not want to boycott Israel.
"Among the signatories was the Swedish ambassador to Germany. A diplomat is an official of his country, whose policy he has to represent. The Jewish community protested against the boycott effort and a media debate resulted. Lindh later said she had told the ambassador her opinion. When asked what she had said she refused to tell. The ambassador stayed in his post.
"The Lutheran church also has a theological institute in Jerusalem that is led by a pro-Palestinian director. When a delegation of all parliamentary parties came to Israel earlier in 2006, I was invited to address them. It turned out the director had arranged matters so that, besides me, they would only meet with Palestinians and extreme-Left Israeli organizations. They visited Ramallah but not Tel Aviv.
"A recent study by a researcher at Lund University notes that from 1937, well before World War II, Swedish Lutheran pastors would not perform marriages between Germans of Aryan blood and anyone with a Jewish grandparent. This racist position was adopted on the advice of the Swedish Foreign Ministry."2
Wrecking a Work of Art
Often people do many things in their life but become famous only for one minor act. On 16 January 2004, Mazel became internationally known by disconnecting the electricity of what was supposedly a work of art. Exhibited in a Stockholm museum, it glorified Palestinian suicide bombings. The artist was an Israeli living in Sweden who belonged to an extreme-Left party.
Mazel comments: "This exhibit was the culmination of dozens of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish events in Sweden. When you do not protest, the situation gets worse and worse. It had to be stopped even if in an unconventional way for a diplomat. Afterward I got a phone call from Prime Minister Sharon that expressed the support of the Israeli cabinet.
"The reactions in the Swedish press did not surprise me: the great majority of the editorials condemned my act. Some support came from letters to the editor. What is important to note is the readers' reactions: in the informal Internet polls by the three leading papers they were more or less balanced for and against my act. In two of the dailies I even had a slight majority.
"Before my intervention at the museum it was almost taboo in the Swedish press to speak about anti-Semitism even though it is widespread. In the last two years it has become a subject for the newspapers. There is, though, great fear of mentioning that it has a substantial Muslim component."
Calling to Kill Jews is Permitted
"In the 1980s a Swedish Muslim, Ahmed Rami, opened Radio Islam where he virulently attacked Jews, Israel, and its supporters. It took years of complaints until the authorities closed his station. Thereafter he opened a website where he does the same.
"The situation with respect to anti-Semitism in Sweden got even worse at the beginning of 2006. Goran Lambertz, the chancellor of justice-the government's counselor on legal matters-discontinued an investigation of the Grand Mosque of Sweden. Cassettes sold there had a highly anti-Semitic content, calling for jihad and the killing of Jews. The chancellor said these were part of the everyday occurrences in the conflict in the Middle East.
"If one chooses the right context one can now call for the mass murder of Jews without any consequences. That is Swedish democracy, which also considers itself entitled to teach Israel morality.
"A major survey in 2005 revealed the widespread anti-Semitism in Sweden. Out of a sample of three thousand Swedes aged sixteen to seventy-five, 41 percent declared themselves anti-Semites, 5 percent strongly so. Twenty-five percent did not consider a Jewish prime minister in Sweden acceptable, 26 percent believed Israel dealt with the Palestinians similarly to how the Nazis dealt with the Jews, and 26 percent thought the Israelis operated according to the biblical concept of an eye for eye."
* * *
Notes
1 NGO Monitor, "Analysis of NGO Funding: The Swedish International Development Corporation Agency (SIDA)," 16 February 2006.
2 "Sweden Applied Nazi Race Laws in Wartime, Study Shows," Haaretz, 6 April 2006.
* * *
ZVI MAZEL recently completed his tour as Israel's Ambassador to Sweden. From 1996 to 2001 he served as Israel's Ambassador to Egypt. He also held senior positions in Israel's Foreign Ministry as director of the Eastern European division and head of the Egyptian and North African department.
Other Related Articles:
Arab and Muslim Anti-Semitism in Sweden - Mikael Tossavainen (Jewish Political Studies Review 17:3-4, Fall 2005)
Sweden's Refusal to Prosecute Nazi War Criminals: 1986-2002 - Efraim Zuroff (Jewish Political Studies Review 14:3-4, Fall 2002)
Interview with Zvi Mazel "Sweden claims to be a superdemocracy, an example of enlightenment and openness. People with such pretensions should be a little more knowledgeable about Israel, another democracy after all. And yet the average Swedish citizen does not know more than what the country's shallow media tells him. This is often anti-Israeli, and the public is influenced by it."
Zvi Mazel was the Israeli ambassador to Sweden from December 2002 to April 2004. "Before, I had been for five years ambassador to Egypt, where massive hatred of Israel was promoted on a daily basis. We were regularly accused of all that was wrong everywhere in the world. I did not expect to find a somewhat similar atmosphere in a democratic country such as Sweden."
During his stay in Stockholm, Mazel developed a critical view of Sweden. Among large parts of the society's elite he encountered a discriminatory attitude and hostility to Israel as well as pseudomorality and arrogance. Sweden's apparent tolerance for rabid anti-Semitism has reinforced his opinion of the country's ruling classes.
Often Hostile Media
"The Swedish media have hardly any investigative function. In that regard their performance compared to the Israeli media is very poor. Issues, including domestic ones, rapidly arise and disappear. The Swedish media's frequent hostility to Israel can partly be explained by the disproportionately large number of journalists who belong or are supporters of the Green and Left parties or the ruling Social Democrats. Jan Guillou, a man who praised Saddam Hussein in his articles and who holds extreme anti-Israeli views, was elected chairman of the Journalists Association-a body that seldom openly criticizes the government.
"A notable exception occurred when Sweden's king, Carl XVI Gustaf, visited Brunei. The king, under Swedish law a figurehead, told his entourage that he considered the Sultan of Brunei an open-minded person who looked after his people. These words led to strong media reactions. How did Sweden's king dare to say this about a 'terrible dictator'?
"The debate on this trivial matter raged for days. The media would never dare to behave similarly against the powerful ruling Social Democrats. They did not have the courage to do so when politicians of the left-wing parties stepped over the line, including financial abuses."
Media Policies
"There is much that is aberrant in the Swedish media world. One day all foreign ambassadors were invited to a meeting by government communication representatives. Some eighty to ninety ambassadors showed up. The head of the state television news department told us, with great arrogance, that they did not interview diplomats. This was not of interest, she said, because diplomats could only express their government's official policy.
"She added that diplomatic representations should not contact the state media for coverage of specific events or countries' independence days. African ambassadors were furious. They have little occasion besides their independence days to draw any attention to their country.
"She furthermore said there were only three international issues of interest for the television: the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Iraq situation in connection to the United States, and relations with neighboring Scandinavian countries. For a democratic country this is an unheard-of attitude and also a sign of how narrow-minded it is.
"She emphasized that the Swedish media are free to publish what they want: 'If they have written against your country, you have no right of reply.' As for the ombudsman, he receives hundreds of complaints per year about the media. He told us that he only takes action on about fifteen cases, ordering that a response should be published. He observed that this was a lengthy procedure." Mazel remarks that in many other democratic countries there is a right of reply.
The Swedish Dailies
Mazel observes: "Among the Swedish dailies, the biggest, Aftonbladet, is the most anti-Israeli. Its editor in chief, Helle Klein, is a descendant of a well-known rabbi but she can find nothing good in Israel and her paper attacks us regularly. During the worst Arab terrorist acts of the intifada, the paper still said Israel was an oppressive colonialist state that behaved entirely unjustly.
"Dagens Nyheter, the more intellectual daily, is also consistently anti-Israeli. It published the worst anti-Semitic article I ever read in a Swedish paper. It was titled 'It Is Permitted to Hate Jews.' The author, Jan Samuelson, who presented himself as an Islam expert, wrote that as long as Israel occupies territories, the Muslim hatred against all Jews is justified. This view entails that any Muslim is entitled to hate a newborn Jewish child anywhere in the world. He did not refer to the genocidal hatred of Jews that existed among Muslims long before the Six Day War.
"Svenska Dagbladet, the other quality newspaper, is also critical of Israel but not as much as the other two. A fourth daily, Expressen, rather a tabloid paper, is usually more balanced. Yet during my stay in Sweden they let an imam of the Stockholm Great Mosque publish a weekly column on Friday. Its text was very different from the violent sermons of the imams in the same mosque."
Preaching Hate in the Mosque
"From friends I used to receive Hamas anti-Semitic material, which is regularly distributed in Stockholm's Great Mosque. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qardawi, an Egyptian Muslim hate-preacher based in Qatar and considered the main theologian of the Muslim Brotherhood, spoke there in 2004. His speech was tantamount to calling for the murder of Israelis. I had complained to the Swedish government even before he came, asking why they let such a well-known hatemonger speak there. I did not even get a reply.
"On this matter the Swedish media initially remained silent. After extracts of Qardawi's talks were published, I wrote to many people in Sweden and distributed his texts. It took some time until one of the leading members of the Liberal Party's young guard wrote an article against the hate preacher. That finally led to some discussion in the Swedish press."
The Social Democrats
Mazel mentions that the Social Democratic Party has been ruling the country since 1932 except for two short interludes. "Since Olof Palme became the Social Democratic leader in 1969 the party has been following an anti-Israeli line, which continues till today." At present the Social Democrats, who lead a minority government, have 144 seats out of 349 in the Riksdag (parliament) and are in an open coalition with the two extreme-Left political parties-the ex-communist Left Party and the Greens, both having a strong anti-Israeli bias. The diplomatic personnel they send to the Swedish representation at the United Nations continue to take anti-Israeli stances and play an important role in encouraging anti-Israeli voting.
"However, one must say that Prime Minister Goran Persson gained much positive publicity when he organized a major international conference on Holocaust education-the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust in January 2000.
"In anticipation of this conference, which was very successful, he had set up a research institute called Living History whose task was and still is to investigate the various aspects of the Holocaust, and which published a book on the Shoah. This excellent work has been translated into many languages and became a textbook for high schools. One of the results of the conference was the formation of a task force of teachers from various countries that would be sent to Yad Vashem for training in Holocaust education.
"In the following years Persson strayed from the centrality of the Holocaust in various other directions. We had major discussions with Swedish diplomats to keep the 2004 conference on Preventing Genocide from becoming highly politicized, focused on contemporary issues, and anti-Israeli.
"Persson's speech at that conference was rather ambivalent. He avoided mentioning the word Islam and did not say a thing about the murderous inclinations and violence of its radical currents. Holocaust Memorial Day, 27 January, fell in the middle of the conference. Persson came to the Great Synagogue in Stockholm and spoke there as he does every year.
"I had been told that in previous years he had made very good speeches. But the one in 2004 was much less so. He hardly mentioned the Holocaust and the Jews. All was very neutral. From the newspapers I learned that on the morning of that same Holocaust Memorial Day, he had gone to visit the Great Mosque. He wanted the media to report the next day on how balanced he was."
The Rise of Swedish Neo-Nazis
"I wondered why Persson had initiated the research into the Holocaust. His main reason seems to have been his worry about the rise of neo-Nazi groups. During World War II there were strong Nazi sympathies in Sweden. Hundreds of Swedes volunteered for the Nazi army in Germany.
"After the war these sympathies did not vanish but were less out in the open. Since the 1960s, Swedish pro-Nazi movements have been on the rise and increasingly problematic. Persson was looking for a way to counter their activities. Someone suggested to him to focus on the Holocaust and arrange a major international conference. He also was advised that this would give him international stature.
"Despite all Persson's efforts the neo-Nazis continue with their gatherings and activities. Rumors are that their number is increasing. There are laws against Nazi incitement and if done openly one can be brought to court. Yet from time to time neo-Nazis demonstrate in the streets of Stockholm and Malm?. On Holocaust Memorial Day in 2003, neo-Nazis demonstrated close to the Stockholm synagogue where the remembrance ceremony was held. The police did not prevent that, of course.
"To the best of my knowledge Persson has never made any strong anti-Israeli statements. Sometimes the media asked him whether he was pro-Israeli; he never answered clearly. The late foreign minister Anna Lindh usually made the most vicious attacks on Israel. Her hatred of Israel can only be described as almost pathological. Under her leadership Sweden published the greatest number of one-sided condemnations of Israel of any EU country. Whenever the IDF reacted to a suicide bombing she issued a 'balanced statement' that condemned both sides. Lindh was stabbed to death in 2003 by a mentally disturbed Swede of Serbian origin.
"The head of the young Social Democrats is of Iranian descent. After he was elected he told the media that the first thing he would do was to urge Persson to take a more anti-Israeli position. There are about half a million Muslims in Sweden, representing 5 percent of the population. They come from a great variety of countries. Sweden remains the most anti-Israeli country in the European Union and also the most pro-Muslim one.
"Despite Persson's personal attitude he has to carry part of the blame for his party's discriminatory stance toward Israel. For decades the Social Democrats helped create the country's anti-Israeli atmosphere. He also has to take responsibility for the behavior of the Swedish International Development Corporation Agency (SIDA), which blames Israel for all the many wrongs in Palestinian society."1
The Mohammed Cartoons
Mazel says: "One proof of the Social Democrats' pro-Muslim attitude came in February 2006 during the international debate on the Mohammed cartoons. No Swedish paper published these, yet the website of a small extreme-Right party, SD-Kuriren, did. The Foreign Ministry gave instructions to the Internet provider to close the site. The government had never before closed any media since the law on press freedom of 1789.
"For a few days the Swedish media wondered how this had been possible. Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds said her ministry had intervened without her knowledge. She had to resign when the media discovered proof of her involvement.
"As the caricatures were already on the Internet, even though hardly anyone had seen them, Sweden sent two Muslim envoys to Muslim countries in order to apologize. Sweden led Europe in this new state of servitude.
"One might say that Social Democratic Sweden is the first European dhimmi state. In Islam those who belong to other monotheistic religions, such as Christians and Jews, are protected by Islam. Yet it is stressed that they are dhimmis, inferior people. As second-class citizens they are often treated poorly, as is true today in many Muslim countries. In some periods they had to pay special taxes, what we would today call protection money. In old times they could not walk on the sidewalk nor ride a donkey, let alone a horse."
Cowardly Media
"To be fair it must be pointed out that the Swedish media are not alone in being cowards. If the European media had more courage, they would constantly expose Muslim violence all over the world. The perpetrators draw motivation directly from Muslim culture. The ongoing mass murders in Iraq demonstrate how widespread violence can be in contemporary Muslim societies. If the European press were really as enlightened as it pretends to be, its editorials would continuously castigate this culture of violence.
"At the beginning of 2006, the Swedish pro-Palestinian organizations held their annual meeting and discussed how to develop their strategy toward Israel. Freivalds spoke at this hate gathering, and was criticized by the press for one day.
"When Freivalds became foreign minister she surprisingly said: 'I am a friend of Israel, though I am also a friend of Palestinians.' For being a friend of Israel she was strongly attacked by many Social Democrats. It took her only a few weeks to adopt the party line and imitate Lindh's statements.
"Israel has very few friends in the Social Democratic Party. The meetings I had with the head of the parliament's foreign affairs committee and with the international secretary of the Social Democrats always entailed accusations from their side.
"Among Foreign Ministry officials one finds outspoken Israel-haters. Some accused us of colonialism and oppression in my conversations with them. They said that they support Israel's existence but oppose our behavior. It was clear that they were pro-Muslim. Several said that the average Swede is an anti-Muslim racist and that it was their task to take the Muslims' side. After Hamas won the Palestinian Authority elections at the beginning of 2006, Sweden gave visas to their representatives. Government officials did not meet with them, but some parliamentarians did."
Other Parties
"Among the opposition parties the Conservatives, Liberals, and Christian Democrats support Israel. Together they have 136 seats. The Center Party is more reserved. Sometimes these parties even collaborated to come out in favor of us. Being the opposition, though, their influence is limited.
"In the Left Party with thirty seats and the Green Party with seventeen there is a universal anti-Israeli attitude. When there is a debate on the Middle East they express an abysmal hatred, which one also finds in their papers. One Green parliamentarian came to Israel together with people from the International Solidarity Movement. He threw stones at the security fence together with Palestinians and was finally evicted from Israel. Initially the Swedish media criticized Israel but later they were more understanding.
"Despite all this I tried to meet the leaders of these parties. My secretary's calls were never returned. There are also a number of extreme-Left extraparliamentary groups. Although not so strong numerically, the extreme Left is very active.
"Many NGOs collaborate with the extreme Left and march with the pro-Palestinians. They would regularly organize demonstrations in front of the Israeli embassy. They would even throw excrement at the building. In Sweden that is apparently permissible. The police let them advance almost to the wall of the embassy.
"This is the common police attitude. In March 2004, I attended a gala evening of the Keren Hayesod that opened the fundraising season. It was held in Nalen Hall, one of the nicer ones in town. Suddenly the security officer of the Israeli embassy entered. Hundreds of protesters, Muslims and extreme leftists, were demonstrating outside and trying to break into the hall and the police did not seem able to block them.
"I told him that I could not leave the audience alone, most of which were non-Jewish friends of Israel. It also seemed to me that the police would not let matters get totally out of hand. Later the public was made to leave through a side door. The following year the owners of the hall refused to rent it again to Keren Hayesod. The violence had intimidated them."
The Lutheran Church
"For about a decade the Lutheran church has no longer been the state church. Its head, Archbishop Hammar, is a well-known Israel-hater. I had barely arrived as ambassador when I learned from the papers that he had gathered seventy Swedish intellectuals to sign a petition to boycott Israeli goods, particularly those that come from the territories. They also wanted to suspend the EU's association agreement with Israel. Even Anna Lindh was not ready to go that far and did not want to boycott Israel.
"Among the signatories was the Swedish ambassador to Germany. A diplomat is an official of his country, whose policy he has to represent. The Jewish community protested against the boycott effort and a media debate resulted. Lindh later said she had told the ambassador her opinion. When asked what she had said she refused to tell. The ambassador stayed in his post.
"The Lutheran church also has a theological institute in Jerusalem that is led by a pro-Palestinian director. When a delegation of all parliamentary parties came to Israel earlier in 2006, I was invited to address them. It turned out the director had arranged matters so that, besides me, they would only meet with Palestinians and extreme-Left Israeli organizations. They visited Ramallah but not Tel Aviv.
"A recent study by a researcher at Lund University notes that from 1937, well before World War II, Swedish Lutheran pastors would not perform marriages between Germans of Aryan blood and anyone with a Jewish grandparent. This racist position was adopted on the advice of the Swedish Foreign Ministry."2
Wrecking a Work of Art
Often people do many things in their life but become famous only for one minor act. On 16 January 2004, Mazel became internationally known by disconnecting the electricity of what was supposedly a work of art. Exhibited in a Stockholm museum, it glorified Palestinian suicide bombings. The artist was an Israeli living in Sweden who belonged to an extreme-Left party.
Mazel comments: "This exhibit was the culmination of dozens of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish events in Sweden. When you do not protest, the situation gets worse and worse. It had to be stopped even if in an unconventional way for a diplomat. Afterward I got a phone call from Prime Minister Sharon that expressed the support of the Israeli cabinet.
"The reactions in the Swedish press did not surprise me: the great majority of the editorials condemned my act. Some support came from letters to the editor. What is important to note is the readers' reactions: in the informal Internet polls by the three leading papers they were more or less balanced for and against my act. In two of the dailies I even had a slight majority.
"Before my intervention at the museum it was almost taboo in the Swedish press to speak about anti-Semitism even though it is widespread. In the last two years it has become a subject for the newspapers. There is, though, great fear of mentioning that it has a substantial Muslim component."
Calling to Kill Jews is Permitted
"In the 1980s a Swedish Muslim, Ahmed Rami, opened Radio Islam where he virulently attacked Jews, Israel, and its supporters. It took years of complaints until the authorities closed his station. Thereafter he opened a website where he does the same.
"The situation with respect to anti-Semitism in Sweden got even worse at the beginning of 2006. Goran Lambertz, the chancellor of justice-the government's counselor on legal matters-discontinued an investigation of the Grand Mosque of Sweden. Cassettes sold there had a highly anti-Semitic content, calling for jihad and the killing of Jews. The chancellor said these were part of the everyday occurrences in the conflict in the Middle East.
"If one chooses the right context one can now call for the mass murder of Jews without any consequences. That is Swedish democracy, which also considers itself entitled to teach Israel morality.
"A major survey in 2005 revealed the widespread anti-Semitism in Sweden. Out of a sample of three thousand Swedes aged sixteen to seventy-five, 41 percent declared themselves anti-Semites, 5 percent strongly so. Twenty-five percent did not consider a Jewish prime minister in Sweden acceptable, 26 percent believed Israel dealt with the Palestinians similarly to how the Nazis dealt with the Jews, and 26 percent thought the Israelis operated according to the biblical concept of an eye for eye."
* * *
Notes
1 NGO Monitor, "Analysis of NGO Funding: The Swedish International Development Corporation Agency (SIDA)," 16 February 2006.
2 "Sweden Applied Nazi Race Laws in Wartime, Study Shows," Haaretz, 6 April 2006.
* * *
ZVI MAZEL recently completed his tour as Israel's Ambassador to Sweden. From 1996 to 2001 he served as Israel's Ambassador to Egypt. He also held senior positions in Israel's Foreign Ministry as director of the Eastern European division and head of the Egyptian and North African department.
Other Related Articles:
Arab and Muslim Anti-Semitism in Sweden - Mikael Tossavainen (Jewish Political Studies Review 17:3-4, Fall 2005)
Sweden's Refusal to Prosecute Nazi War Criminals: 1986-2002 - Efraim Zuroff (Jewish Political Studies Review 14:3-4, Fall 2002)
Sacked Iranian oil minister issues stark warning of impending energy crisis
TEHRAN: Iran's sacked oil minister has issued a parting warning to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, predicting a looming "catastrophe" in the Iranian energy sector...
Comment:All is not well in Iran-there are economic factors, if the West would attack, can prevent a nuclear war. Pressure from the entire West, not just the USA, can avert a potential war-does the West have the courage to so engage?
because of high consumption, media reported on Sunday. "If we do not find a solution to the energy problem in the next 15 years, the country will face a catastrophe," Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh was quoted as saying at his farewell ceremony late on Saturday by the ISNA news agency.
"I am ready to prove that if the fuel situation continues along current trends, we will face an energy crisis in the future," he said. "The current pattern of consumption is a disaster for the country."
The comments by Hamaneh, who also revealed for the first time that he was sacked in a Cabinet reshuffle last week, are a stark warning about the energy problems of a country rich in natural resources.
Iran is OPEC's number-two crude-oil producer and is also pinning major hopes on its gas reserves, estimated to be the second largest proven reserves in the world after Russia.
But frenzied consumption of gasoline forces it to import millions of liters per day of refined oil to make up for a domestic shortfall. Wasteful heating methods also create gas shortages in winter.
The government introduced gasoline rationing in June in a bid to ease the immense strain on the budget of importing petrol for Iran's 70 million people, but it is still forced to import huge quantities of petrol daily.
A further problem comes from under-investment in its oil fields, an issue compounded by US action to prevent banks lending to Iran because of its controversial nuclear program.
The influential research center of Parliament also sounded a downbeat note on the future of Iran's gas industry, saying that exports would not be possible in the next 10 years given the scale of domestic consumption.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
"It seems that for at least the next 10 years there will not be any extra gas for export. Iran is advised to remove gas export from the country's policy due to the limited production capacity," it said.
Turkey is currently the only recipient of Iranian gas exports, receiving several billion cubic meters annually.
But Iran is seeking to export large quantities of gas to Turkey and other countries in the Middle East, as well as to India and Pakistan through new pipelines.
Hamaneh confirmed for the first time that he was sacked in the reshuffle, which also saw the departure of Industry Minister Alireza Tahmasebi and was seen as a bid by Ahmadinejad to step up the president's control over the economy.
"I did not resign, because I still have the ability to work. Anyone who has the ability to work will not resign," Hamaneh said, according to the Mehr news agency.
"Sacking me from the ministry was the president's idea, and I obliged," he added.
Hamaneh is a veteran Oil Ministry official who was Ahmadinejad's fourth choice for the post when he took power in 2005. Two candidates were rejected by Parliament and another withdrew on his own accord.
He complained that in the "two years of Ahmadinejad's government, oil managers had been forced to pay for all mistakes made in the past. And I say here if these group's pressures are not stopped, the industry and the country will face crisis."
Tahmasebi also launched a stinging attack on Ahmadinejad's economic policies in his resignation letter, complaining of under-investment and damaging personnel changes. - AFP
Comment:All is not well in Iran-there are economic factors, if the West would attack, can prevent a nuclear war. Pressure from the entire West, not just the USA, can avert a potential war-does the West have the courage to so engage?
because of high consumption, media reported on Sunday. "If we do not find a solution to the energy problem in the next 15 years, the country will face a catastrophe," Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh was quoted as saying at his farewell ceremony late on Saturday by the ISNA news agency.
"I am ready to prove that if the fuel situation continues along current trends, we will face an energy crisis in the future," he said. "The current pattern of consumption is a disaster for the country."
The comments by Hamaneh, who also revealed for the first time that he was sacked in a Cabinet reshuffle last week, are a stark warning about the energy problems of a country rich in natural resources.
Iran is OPEC's number-two crude-oil producer and is also pinning major hopes on its gas reserves, estimated to be the second largest proven reserves in the world after Russia.
But frenzied consumption of gasoline forces it to import millions of liters per day of refined oil to make up for a domestic shortfall. Wasteful heating methods also create gas shortages in winter.
The government introduced gasoline rationing in June in a bid to ease the immense strain on the budget of importing petrol for Iran's 70 million people, but it is still forced to import huge quantities of petrol daily.
A further problem comes from under-investment in its oil fields, an issue compounded by US action to prevent banks lending to Iran because of its controversial nuclear program.
The influential research center of Parliament also sounded a downbeat note on the future of Iran's gas industry, saying that exports would not be possible in the next 10 years given the scale of domestic consumption.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
"It seems that for at least the next 10 years there will not be any extra gas for export. Iran is advised to remove gas export from the country's policy due to the limited production capacity," it said.
Turkey is currently the only recipient of Iranian gas exports, receiving several billion cubic meters annually.
But Iran is seeking to export large quantities of gas to Turkey and other countries in the Middle East, as well as to India and Pakistan through new pipelines.
Hamaneh confirmed for the first time that he was sacked in the reshuffle, which also saw the departure of Industry Minister Alireza Tahmasebi and was seen as a bid by Ahmadinejad to step up the president's control over the economy.
"I did not resign, because I still have the ability to work. Anyone who has the ability to work will not resign," Hamaneh said, according to the Mehr news agency.
"Sacking me from the ministry was the president's idea, and I obliged," he added.
Hamaneh is a veteran Oil Ministry official who was Ahmadinejad's fourth choice for the post when he took power in 2005. Two candidates were rejected by Parliament and another withdrew on his own accord.
He complained that in the "two years of Ahmadinejad's government, oil managers had been forced to pay for all mistakes made in the past. And I say here if these group's pressures are not stopped, the industry and the country will face crisis."
Tahmasebi also launched a stinging attack on Ahmadinejad's economic policies in his resignation letter, complaining of under-investment and damaging personnel changes. - AFP
APU urges one minute silence against Israel
Comment: Just another example of the ongoing, daily, media washing in the Arab media to invalidate Israel's rights. This is necessary to keep its population focused upon an "external enemy" thus taking pressure off each Arab country's internal troubles. Thought you should be aware.
AMMAN: The Arab Parliamentary Union (APU) has called on world parliaments and organisations to observe one minute of silence to express condemnation of the continued Israeli violations in occupied Jerusalem and other occupied territories. The parliament said in a statement it issued on the 38th anniversary of the burning of Al Aqsa Mosque by an Australian, the third holiest shrine in Islama, that Jerusalem is "a red line for Arab and Islamic nations that should not be crossed."
"Jerusalem has an international legal status that Israel is seeking to change," the statement said.
It called for dismantling Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and eliminating the separation wall being constructed by Israel in the territory.
The statement reaffirmed the APU's support for the Arab initiative for peace with Israel and said the Jewish state was evading "just and comprehensive peace in order to continue its aggressive policies in the occupied territories."
"The 38th anniversary of the burning of Al Aqsa Mosque coincides with the continuation of the Israeli policies to juadize the holy city, the last of which was the excavation work carried out by Israel underneath the mosque's walls to obliterate the Arab and Islamic identity of Jerusalem," said the statement.
The Israeli daily Haaretez has reported that the Israeli occupation forces is working together with the Ateret Cohanim association to wrest from Palestinian landowners control of some four hectares of land in East Jerusalem and to transfer it to the association without a tender.
Ateret Cohanim promotes settlement of Jews in and around the Old City, and at times takes over Palestinian assets in East Jerusalem so as to "judaise" that area.
Haartez said it had seen documents showing that the occupation authorities have signed a deal with Ateret Cohanim for "the agricultural cultivation" of the plot in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of Arab East Jerusalem.
"The documents indicate that the contract was signed even though the land that the ILA (Israeli Land Authority) leased apparently does not belong to it and the interior ministry recognises that the Palestinian landowners 'have an interest' in it," said Haaretz.
The paper quoted a senior source at the ILA as saying that the contract was signed in order "to keep the territory in Jewish hands."
In a petition to the Israeli high court, the Palestinian landowners, the Arab Hotels Company, asks for the expropriation to be prohibited because it was done "for an extraneous, illegitimate, racist and discriminatory purpose ..."
AMMAN: The Arab Parliamentary Union (APU) has called on world parliaments and organisations to observe one minute of silence to express condemnation of the continued Israeli violations in occupied Jerusalem and other occupied territories. The parliament said in a statement it issued on the 38th anniversary of the burning of Al Aqsa Mosque by an Australian, the third holiest shrine in Islama, that Jerusalem is "a red line for Arab and Islamic nations that should not be crossed."
"Jerusalem has an international legal status that Israel is seeking to change," the statement said.
It called for dismantling Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and eliminating the separation wall being constructed by Israel in the territory.
The statement reaffirmed the APU's support for the Arab initiative for peace with Israel and said the Jewish state was evading "just and comprehensive peace in order to continue its aggressive policies in the occupied territories."
"The 38th anniversary of the burning of Al Aqsa Mosque coincides with the continuation of the Israeli policies to juadize the holy city, the last of which was the excavation work carried out by Israel underneath the mosque's walls to obliterate the Arab and Islamic identity of Jerusalem," said the statement.
The Israeli daily Haaretez has reported that the Israeli occupation forces is working together with the Ateret Cohanim association to wrest from Palestinian landowners control of some four hectares of land in East Jerusalem and to transfer it to the association without a tender.
Ateret Cohanim promotes settlement of Jews in and around the Old City, and at times takes over Palestinian assets in East Jerusalem so as to "judaise" that area.
Haartez said it had seen documents showing that the occupation authorities have signed a deal with Ateret Cohanim for "the agricultural cultivation" of the plot in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of Arab East Jerusalem.
"The documents indicate that the contract was signed even though the land that the ILA (Israeli Land Authority) leased apparently does not belong to it and the interior ministry recognises that the Palestinian landowners 'have an interest' in it," said Haaretz.
The paper quoted a senior source at the ILA as saying that the contract was signed in order "to keep the territory in Jewish hands."
In a petition to the Israeli high court, the Palestinian landowners, the Arab Hotels Company, asks for the expropriation to be prohibited because it was done "for an extraneous, illegitimate, racist and discriminatory purpose ..."
Kingdom Urges Arabs to Close Ranks
Arab News —
JEDDAH, 21 August 2007 — Saudi Arabia said yesterday that solving the problems of the Muslim Ummah by promoting stability, security, development and unity is the first priority of the Kingdom’s foreign policy.
“The ability of the Arab countries to counter all challenges faced by them internally, regionally and internationally requires that they take joint action and fulfill their commitments to the decisions and treaties made at summit meetings,” Custodian of the Two Mosques King Abdullah said in his address to the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers.
“They should also have the conviction that the welfare of the Arabs lies in closing their ranks, not splitting away, and making their regional alliances instrumental in fortifying their (Arab) unity instead of making it a tool for division and consequent weakness,” he added.
Following the Council of Ministers’ meeting at the Al-Salam Palace here, Minister of Culture and Information Iyad Madani told the Saudi Press Agency that the Kingdom was making all possible efforts to serve the two Holy Mosques and making necessary arrangements to guarantee the comfort and safety of pilgrims. These efforts include the expansion of the Mas’a (the pathway between Safa and Marwa) and the completion of the upper floors of the Jamrat, in addition to the general development of Makkah, Madinah and other holy sites.
The Cabinet decided to set up an independent government organization for the promotion of the Kingdom’s nonoil exports. The new Saudi Exports Promotion Authority will organize international fairs and undertake the management of the country’s nonoil exports, which is currently supervised by the Department for External Trade under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The body will participate in laying down the government’s policies to promote exports. This includes planning to enhance the competitiveness of Saudi commodities. The body will also take care of developing a favorable environment for exports by providing administrative and technical support, and incentives for exporters besides protecting their investments, the minister said.
Other functions of the new body include increased involvement of Saudis in export-oriented activities and the promotion of a culture of exports in the Kingdom in collaboration with local and international training organizations, the minister said.
Israel's Indocrintation Education Minister-Dangerous to Israel
Israel’s reeducation minister
Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST
Aug. 20, 2007
Comment: This lady is a danger within our own borders. Her damage will be felt for a generation.
Education Minister Yuli Tamir has been much in the news. Two weeks ago she went on a well-publicized visit to authoritarian Singapore to learn the secret of its school system's success.
Tamir summed up her visit in an interview with Yediot Aharonot, saying, "What most entranced me about [Singaporean schoolchildren] was that while there is discipline, it doesn't look like repression. I didn't see fear in the children's eyes."
It makes sense that this would be the aspect of Singapore's education system that most impressed Tamir. Her moves back home are all aimed at foisting her political agenda on schoolchildren while blocking all forms of dissent. Dissent, after all, could make her agenda appear repressive.
Tamir's political agenda has been alternately described as pro-peace, anti-Zionist, pro-democracy, anti-democracy, pluralistic and anti-Semitic.
To understand what her agenda actually holds in store for our future, we need to move beyond labels and assess her policies themselves.
Last December, Tamir ordered that from now on, all maps of the country in new textbooks must clearly demark the 1949 armistice lines. As Tamir sees it, the demarcation of the 1949 armistice lines is crucial for advancing peace. Speaking to Ha'aretz, she said, "We cannot demand that our Arab neighbors mark the borders from 4 June 1967, when our own Education Ministry has erased them from the textbooks and from the students' consciousness."
SINCE ISRAEL has applied its laws to the entirety of unified Jerusalem and to the Golan Heights, it is clear that the reason they don't appear in school textbooks is because they are irrelevant to the study of Israel's borders. Aside from that, when the cease-fire lines were drawn, neither Israel nor any of its neighbors accepted them as borders and, moreover, in the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, those lines did not serve as the basis for determining the borders between them. And so, not only does her move ignore Israel's own determination of its sovereignty, it also ignores historical fact.
As one of the founders of the EU-funded radical Peace Now movement, Tamir opposes all Israeli building beyond the 1949 lines. Her animus was given expression this month with the Council for Higher Education of Judea and Samaria's decision to upgrade Ariel College to the status of university center. Immediately after the institute, which confers bachelor's and master's degrees on its 8,500 students, changed its name to the Ariel University Center of Samaria, Tamir pledged to cut off its government funding and to ignore any correspondence with the institution if it referred to itself as a university center.
The Ariel University Center of Samaria's location is not Tamir's only beef with it. Its overt Zionism also sets her off. The school requires all its students to take one course per semester in either Jewish- or Zionist-related subjects. It also requires that the national flag be displayed in all classrooms.
THESE POLICIES fly in the face of Tamir's efforts to suppress Zionist and Jewish education.
This month she supported the Finance Ministry's decision to cut the government's support for pre-army leadership academies by 50 percent. Students at these academies receive a year-long deferment of their military service. During that year they study Jewish history, Zionist history and Talmud. They volunteer for community service. They undergo pre-military physical fitness regimens, and they hike throughout the country. Seventy percent of graduates serve in combat units and 30% become officers. Among the girls, the majority serve as officers.
In short, in the space of a year, the pre-army academies imbue their students with their Jewish and Israeli heritage and the students, in turn, form the backbone of the IDF's combat soldier and officer corps. And Tamir has decided to slash their budgets.
As to the general school system, Tamir is advancing a plan to cut the course load by 30% over the next five years. History and Zionist education will be the areas most immediately affected. As she put it, "Rather than learn a lot of material - we'll learn thinking.Today it is important to process information, not memorize things."
ON SUNDAY, Yediot reported that as part of her plan to limit the materials and control the content of the lessons taught to students, Tamir is moving against Jewish and Zionist studies teachers who teach in the framework of their National Service. Most of the teachers in National Service are Orthodox teenage girls. Due to their religious observance, most Orthodox girls opt to do national service rather than serve in the military.
According to the report, and subsequent follow-ups, Tamir has decided to cut the number of Orthodox teenagers employed through National Service institutions as Jewish and Zionist studies teachers in elementary schools by 50%. As Education Ministry officials put it to Yediot, the girls are "too right-wing," and so they must be removed from classrooms lest they infect schoolchildren with their commitment to the state and to Jewish heritage.
In silencing dissenting voices, Tamir has not been shy about being ruthless.
Take the example of Rabbi Yisrael Shiran. In 2000, when Tamir was serving as tourism minister, Shiran worked as a Jewish studies teacher at the Moriah national religious school in Haifa. He raised Tamir's hackles when he refused an Education Ministry directive to teach slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's "legacy" of the Oslo peace process with the PLO in the framework of his lesson plans for commemorating his murder. As Shiran saw it, Oslo was controversial, and so it couldn't simply be taught in a positive light. Tamir moved to have him fired. Shiran petitioned the High Court of Justice, and she relented.
In 2002, he transferred to another school. Now the parents at Moriah want him back. But Tamir is refusing to approve his transfer. Just to teach him a lesson.
TAMIR WISHES to replace Zionism and Jewish studies with "democratic citizenship" studies. As she explained to Yediot, "In Israel there is a real lack of democratic citizenship studies. As I pledged, the school system is moving this year to teach the subject of citizenship at a level of two credit units [for the high school matriculation exams]. In the future we will continue to expand citizenship classes to the level of three, four and five credits. People aren't born citizens. They are educated to be citizens." Or reeducated.
In Tamir's view, a good citizen is one who gives equal weight to both Israel's actual history and to the Arab world's distorted version of that history. Last month, she approved a third-grade textbook for Arab Israelis that teaches children that Arabs view the 1948 War of Independence, in which the infant state warded off the invading armies of five Arab states determined to annihilate its Jewish population, as "the nakba," or catastrophe.
Arab Israeli children will now be taught that from the Arab perspective, Israel's establishment was an act of Jewish aggression. And as Tamir sees it, "I also think it is important for Jewish children to learn about the nakba."
IN HER latest gambit, this week Tamir informed Israeli Islamic Movement leader and MK Ibrahim Sarsour that she will seriously consider his request to make Islamic religion and culture a required subject for Israeli Arabs. While here too, Tamir's move is clearly aimed at advancing the distorted Arab narrative in the interest of promoting her vision of good "citizenship," the fact is that Sarsour does not share her goal of promoting a multicultural Israel.
In February 2006, reacting to Hamas's victory in the Palestinian Authority elections the previous month, Sarsour declared that the Israeli Arab public supports the Palestinian and global jihad forces working to destroy Israel and conquer the Western world.
In his words, "The entire Arab public, but especially the Muslim public, is in the crosshairs. It is the target of global attack. As the Islamic Movement, we wish to see establishment of the Islamic caliphate without borders, and this is what scares the West."
This March, speaking at a conference on Jerusalem in Ramallah, Sarsour called on the Palestinians to conquer Israel's capital city. "Just as the Muslims once liberated Jerusalem from the Crusaders, so must we today believe we can liberate Jerusalem. It is not an impossible dream," he said.
Given Sarsour's objective of destroying the State of Israel, Tamir's willingness to consider his demands means that she supports the indoctrination of Arab Israelis to work toward the destruction of the state as a whole. When taken together with her war against Zionist and Jewish education, educators and institutions, it is clear that not only does Tamir's vision involve indoctrinating Israel's Arabs to become its enemies; it also involves indoctrinating (without repression) a new generation of Israelis in a manner that will render them defenseless in the face of the Arab onslaught against the country.
Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST
Aug. 20, 2007
Comment: This lady is a danger within our own borders. Her damage will be felt for a generation.
Education Minister Yuli Tamir has been much in the news. Two weeks ago she went on a well-publicized visit to authoritarian Singapore to learn the secret of its school system's success.
Tamir summed up her visit in an interview with Yediot Aharonot, saying, "What most entranced me about [Singaporean schoolchildren] was that while there is discipline, it doesn't look like repression. I didn't see fear in the children's eyes."
It makes sense that this would be the aspect of Singapore's education system that most impressed Tamir. Her moves back home are all aimed at foisting her political agenda on schoolchildren while blocking all forms of dissent. Dissent, after all, could make her agenda appear repressive.
Tamir's political agenda has been alternately described as pro-peace, anti-Zionist, pro-democracy, anti-democracy, pluralistic and anti-Semitic.
To understand what her agenda actually holds in store for our future, we need to move beyond labels and assess her policies themselves.
Last December, Tamir ordered that from now on, all maps of the country in new textbooks must clearly demark the 1949 armistice lines. As Tamir sees it, the demarcation of the 1949 armistice lines is crucial for advancing peace. Speaking to Ha'aretz, she said, "We cannot demand that our Arab neighbors mark the borders from 4 June 1967, when our own Education Ministry has erased them from the textbooks and from the students' consciousness."
SINCE ISRAEL has applied its laws to the entirety of unified Jerusalem and to the Golan Heights, it is clear that the reason they don't appear in school textbooks is because they are irrelevant to the study of Israel's borders. Aside from that, when the cease-fire lines were drawn, neither Israel nor any of its neighbors accepted them as borders and, moreover, in the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, those lines did not serve as the basis for determining the borders between them. And so, not only does her move ignore Israel's own determination of its sovereignty, it also ignores historical fact.
As one of the founders of the EU-funded radical Peace Now movement, Tamir opposes all Israeli building beyond the 1949 lines. Her animus was given expression this month with the Council for Higher Education of Judea and Samaria's decision to upgrade Ariel College to the status of university center. Immediately after the institute, which confers bachelor's and master's degrees on its 8,500 students, changed its name to the Ariel University Center of Samaria, Tamir pledged to cut off its government funding and to ignore any correspondence with the institution if it referred to itself as a university center.
The Ariel University Center of Samaria's location is not Tamir's only beef with it. Its overt Zionism also sets her off. The school requires all its students to take one course per semester in either Jewish- or Zionist-related subjects. It also requires that the national flag be displayed in all classrooms.
THESE POLICIES fly in the face of Tamir's efforts to suppress Zionist and Jewish education.
This month she supported the Finance Ministry's decision to cut the government's support for pre-army leadership academies by 50 percent. Students at these academies receive a year-long deferment of their military service. During that year they study Jewish history, Zionist history and Talmud. They volunteer for community service. They undergo pre-military physical fitness regimens, and they hike throughout the country. Seventy percent of graduates serve in combat units and 30% become officers. Among the girls, the majority serve as officers.
In short, in the space of a year, the pre-army academies imbue their students with their Jewish and Israeli heritage and the students, in turn, form the backbone of the IDF's combat soldier and officer corps. And Tamir has decided to slash their budgets.
As to the general school system, Tamir is advancing a plan to cut the course load by 30% over the next five years. History and Zionist education will be the areas most immediately affected. As she put it, "Rather than learn a lot of material - we'll learn thinking.Today it is important to process information, not memorize things."
ON SUNDAY, Yediot reported that as part of her plan to limit the materials and control the content of the lessons taught to students, Tamir is moving against Jewish and Zionist studies teachers who teach in the framework of their National Service. Most of the teachers in National Service are Orthodox teenage girls. Due to their religious observance, most Orthodox girls opt to do national service rather than serve in the military.
According to the report, and subsequent follow-ups, Tamir has decided to cut the number of Orthodox teenagers employed through National Service institutions as Jewish and Zionist studies teachers in elementary schools by 50%. As Education Ministry officials put it to Yediot, the girls are "too right-wing," and so they must be removed from classrooms lest they infect schoolchildren with their commitment to the state and to Jewish heritage.
In silencing dissenting voices, Tamir has not been shy about being ruthless.
Take the example of Rabbi Yisrael Shiran. In 2000, when Tamir was serving as tourism minister, Shiran worked as a Jewish studies teacher at the Moriah national religious school in Haifa. He raised Tamir's hackles when he refused an Education Ministry directive to teach slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's "legacy" of the Oslo peace process with the PLO in the framework of his lesson plans for commemorating his murder. As Shiran saw it, Oslo was controversial, and so it couldn't simply be taught in a positive light. Tamir moved to have him fired. Shiran petitioned the High Court of Justice, and she relented.
In 2002, he transferred to another school. Now the parents at Moriah want him back. But Tamir is refusing to approve his transfer. Just to teach him a lesson.
TAMIR WISHES to replace Zionism and Jewish studies with "democratic citizenship" studies. As she explained to Yediot, "In Israel there is a real lack of democratic citizenship studies. As I pledged, the school system is moving this year to teach the subject of citizenship at a level of two credit units [for the high school matriculation exams]. In the future we will continue to expand citizenship classes to the level of three, four and five credits. People aren't born citizens. They are educated to be citizens." Or reeducated.
In Tamir's view, a good citizen is one who gives equal weight to both Israel's actual history and to the Arab world's distorted version of that history. Last month, she approved a third-grade textbook for Arab Israelis that teaches children that Arabs view the 1948 War of Independence, in which the infant state warded off the invading armies of five Arab states determined to annihilate its Jewish population, as "the nakba," or catastrophe.
Arab Israeli children will now be taught that from the Arab perspective, Israel's establishment was an act of Jewish aggression. And as Tamir sees it, "I also think it is important for Jewish children to learn about the nakba."
IN HER latest gambit, this week Tamir informed Israeli Islamic Movement leader and MK Ibrahim Sarsour that she will seriously consider his request to make Islamic religion and culture a required subject for Israeli Arabs. While here too, Tamir's move is clearly aimed at advancing the distorted Arab narrative in the interest of promoting her vision of good "citizenship," the fact is that Sarsour does not share her goal of promoting a multicultural Israel.
In February 2006, reacting to Hamas's victory in the Palestinian Authority elections the previous month, Sarsour declared that the Israeli Arab public supports the Palestinian and global jihad forces working to destroy Israel and conquer the Western world.
In his words, "The entire Arab public, but especially the Muslim public, is in the crosshairs. It is the target of global attack. As the Islamic Movement, we wish to see establishment of the Islamic caliphate without borders, and this is what scares the West."
This March, speaking at a conference on Jerusalem in Ramallah, Sarsour called on the Palestinians to conquer Israel's capital city. "Just as the Muslims once liberated Jerusalem from the Crusaders, so must we today believe we can liberate Jerusalem. It is not an impossible dream," he said.
Given Sarsour's objective of destroying the State of Israel, Tamir's willingness to consider his demands means that she supports the indoctrination of Arab Israelis to work toward the destruction of the state as a whole. When taken together with her war against Zionist and Jewish education, educators and institutions, it is clear that not only does Tamir's vision involve indoctrinating Israel's Arabs to become its enemies; it also involves indoctrinating (without repression) a new generation of Israelis in a manner that will render them defenseless in the face of the Arab onslaught against the country.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Romancing the Mullahs
By Joseph Klein
FrontPageMagazine.com
8/20/2007
In the alternative universe inhabited by the radical Left, Iran’s mad mullahs want nothing more than peaceful co-existence with the United States and Israel. Vice President Cheney and Senator Lieberman are the war-mongers, we are told - egged on by the Zionists and the Jewish lobbyists who control the key power centers in Washington, D.C.
You can read an example of this kind of pro-Iranian propaganda in a blog, featured on the August 17th edition of the Left-wing Huffington Post, entitled Cheney, Lieberman and Iran War Conspiracy. The author, Dr. Gareth Porter, is described on his blog as an investigative historian, journalist on U.S. national security policy and frequent writer on Iran and Iraq.
Porter is one of the radical Left’s most prolific commentators who lash out against the Bush Administration’s policy toward the Islamic fanatics running Iran today. His articles appear regularly on Left-wing sites like Huffington Post, American Prospect, Antiwar.com, and TomPaine.com.
Gareth Porter, along with Noam Chomsky, are heroes of the radical Left movement for their long record of denouncing American policies in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, which they say are built on lies and reflect our country’s imperialistic designs to dominate the world with military force. Consistently on the wrong side of history as millions have been liberated from the yoke of oppressive regimes by the sacrifices of the American people, these Leftist idols plow on with their defense of the indefensible. Giving the benefit of the doubt to their own democratically elected leaders rather than some of the world’s worst tyrants is simply not part of their DNA.
Porter’s writings on Iran provide clues to this boneheaded ‘thinking’. For example, in one recent article, Porter claimed that “[D]espite the administration’s complaints that Iran is supporting the Shiite militias who are causing sectarian violence, the United States itself is the quartermaster of the forces of sectarian civil war.”
Our tireless attempts to foster a viable ruling coalition representing the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, operating in a constitutional framework within which they can settle their differences peacefully, floats completely over this radical apologist’s head.
In another article, Porter blamed American reporters for trumping up a story about Iranians killing Americans in Iraq, even though we know that some sophisticated Improvised Explosive Devices used by Iraq’s Shia militants to kill and maim our troops have been traced to Iran.
Porter has also charged that the Bush Administration covered up a major peace overture that Iran made back in 2003, a charge which has seeped into the mainstream press as well. Porter’s charge is based on a copy of an unsigned faxed letter which he recently received. The letter purportedly had been originally relayed from the Iranian government via the Swiss Ambassador to Iran.
Porter and other Bush-bashers claim that the war-mongers in the Bush Administration spurned the Iranian government’s supposed offer of broad concessions to the United States, including cessation of terror and adoption of the Arab peace initiative recognizing Israel under certain conditions, in return for a softening of the US attitude toward Iran. Ever since they first received the letter in 2003, Administration officials have denied the letter’s existence because, Porter says, it would undercut their claims “that Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel and the sponsorship of terrorism in the region.” As far as Porter is concerned the letter proves the Iranians’ peaceful intentions, and contrariwise its rejection by the United States proves our government’s aggressive, militaristic intentions.
Whether this letter is authentic or not is still a mystery. Secretary of State Rice claims that she never saw the letter. The Swiss embassy has reportedly acknowledged privately that Tim Guldimann, the Swiss ambassador who served as the intermediary, was freelancing.
Four Presidents before George Bush have tried the negotiation route with Iran, which ended in failure and humiliation. Negotiations between Iran and the Europeans have also proven fruitless for years. The Iranians simply used these negotiations as a cover to buy time for their uranium enrichment program. So there was no reason to expect an even more ambitious negotiation of a comprehensive peace to have any chance of success – in 2003 or today. In any case, the purported offer contained in the 2003 letter was made by the reformist regime that was subsequently swept out of the government by the arch-conservative mullahs and their hand-picked President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the map. That is not a starting point for real negotiations to any rational person.
Nevertheless, let us assume for the moment that Porter is right and the letter is legitimate. If so, the Iranians effectively conceded their influence and involvement with the terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad by offering for negotiation the following:
“1) stop of any material support to Palestinian opposition groups (Hamas, Jihad etc.) from Iranian territory, pressure on these organizations to stop violent action against civilians within borders of 1967.
2) action on Hizbollah to become a mere political organization within Lebanon”
The letter also pledged “Iranian commitment for enhanced action against Al Qaida members in Iran” which can be taken as an admission that Osama bin Laden’s gang was finding refuge there.
Of course, we do not need the letter to substantiate the Iranian regime’s funding, training and harboring of terrorists who serve as their proxies to kill innocent civilians in the name of their fanatical Islamic theology. The proof of their complicity in terrorist acts around the world and in the killing of Americans since the mullahs came to power in 1979 is overwhelming. At long last, the Bush Administration has decided to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, which will allow our government to put more economic pressure on international companies that continue to do business with these thugs and to strike them wherever we find them.
Years before Porter decided to attack his own country for questioning the Iranian theocracy’s good intentions, he had defended one of the worst genocidal regimes in modern times next to Nazi Germany – the Khmer Rouge, which had slaughtered more than a million of their own people in Cambodia after the United States pulled its troops out of the region. He praised the “new revolutionary government” for its food policy and denied that a systematic slaughter of this scale ever took place. In testimony before a Congressional committee as a so-called expert on Southeast Asia at the time, he called reports of such mass slaughter nothing more than a “myth” perpetrated by the authors of a Reader’s Digest book and publicized by Time Magazine. This caused Democratic Congressman Solarz to compare Porter’s denial of the Cambodian genocide to the rants one would expect from a Nazi Holocaust denier.
Perhaps the statement in Porter’s Congressional testimony that reveals the most about the radical Left mindset is the following:
“There has been and will be a price paid in human lives, in hardship and suffering, and in the loss of certain values, in the revolutionary transformation of any society. Cambodia is no exception to that principle.”
Flash forward to today. The Iranian Islamic regime is killing its own people in the largest wave of executions in Iran since 1984 when Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the shooting of thousands of political prisoners. Over the past two months alone, at least 118 people have been executed, including four who were stoned to death. It has been reported that one hundred fifty more people, including five women, are scheduled to be hanged or stoned to death in the near future.
We do not hear a peep from the radical Left about such human rights atrocities committed in the name of Islamic ideology. After all, there is “a price paid in human lives…in the revolutionary transformation of any society.” Indeed, the Iranian regime born in revolution against Western influence is one that Porter and his fellow Leftists appear to trust more than they trust their own government. In their worldview, if it were not for Bush’s refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the Islamic theocracy ruling Iran and his “administration's drive for greater dominance in the Middle East”, everything would be coming up roses in our relationship with Iran.
Denying the realities of mass slaughters committed by Communist totalitarian states and Islamic jihadists, radical Leftists have long been accustomed to believing the best about our enemies and the worst about our democratically elected leaders. To them, revolutionary transformation of societies to some utopian notion of perfection can excuse the blood that must be spilt to achieve the revolutionary goals. They would do well to pay heed to these telling words of Prophet Isaiah, but alas they never will: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; they put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Woe
Joseph A. Klein
By Joseph Klein
FrontPageMagazine.com
8/20/2007
In the alternative universe inhabited by the radical Left, Iran’s mad mullahs want nothing more than peaceful co-existence with the United States and Israel. Vice President Cheney and Senator Lieberman are the war-mongers, we are told - egged on by the Zionists and the Jewish lobbyists who control the key power centers in Washington, D.C.
You can read an example of this kind of pro-Iranian propaganda in a blog, featured on the August 17th edition of the Left-wing Huffington Post, entitled Cheney, Lieberman and Iran War Conspiracy. The author, Dr. Gareth Porter, is described on his blog as an investigative historian, journalist on U.S. national security policy and frequent writer on Iran and Iraq.
Porter is one of the radical Left’s most prolific commentators who lash out against the Bush Administration’s policy toward the Islamic fanatics running Iran today. His articles appear regularly on Left-wing sites like Huffington Post, American Prospect, Antiwar.com, and TomPaine.com.
Gareth Porter, along with Noam Chomsky, are heroes of the radical Left movement for their long record of denouncing American policies in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, which they say are built on lies and reflect our country’s imperialistic designs to dominate the world with military force. Consistently on the wrong side of history as millions have been liberated from the yoke of oppressive regimes by the sacrifices of the American people, these Leftist idols plow on with their defense of the indefensible. Giving the benefit of the doubt to their own democratically elected leaders rather than some of the world’s worst tyrants is simply not part of their DNA.
Porter’s writings on Iran provide clues to this boneheaded ‘thinking’. For example, in one recent article, Porter claimed that “[D]espite the administration’s complaints that Iran is supporting the Shiite militias who are causing sectarian violence, the United States itself is the quartermaster of the forces of sectarian civil war.”
Our tireless attempts to foster a viable ruling coalition representing the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, operating in a constitutional framework within which they can settle their differences peacefully, floats completely over this radical apologist’s head.
In another article, Porter blamed American reporters for trumping up a story about Iranians killing Americans in Iraq, even though we know that some sophisticated Improvised Explosive Devices used by Iraq’s Shia militants to kill and maim our troops have been traced to Iran.
Porter has also charged that the Bush Administration covered up a major peace overture that Iran made back in 2003, a charge which has seeped into the mainstream press as well. Porter’s charge is based on a copy of an unsigned faxed letter which he recently received. The letter purportedly had been originally relayed from the Iranian government via the Swiss Ambassador to Iran.
Porter and other Bush-bashers claim that the war-mongers in the Bush Administration spurned the Iranian government’s supposed offer of broad concessions to the United States, including cessation of terror and adoption of the Arab peace initiative recognizing Israel under certain conditions, in return for a softening of the US attitude toward Iran. Ever since they first received the letter in 2003, Administration officials have denied the letter’s existence because, Porter says, it would undercut their claims “that Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel and the sponsorship of terrorism in the region.” As far as Porter is concerned the letter proves the Iranians’ peaceful intentions, and contrariwise its rejection by the United States proves our government’s aggressive, militaristic intentions.
Whether this letter is authentic or not is still a mystery. Secretary of State Rice claims that she never saw the letter. The Swiss embassy has reportedly acknowledged privately that Tim Guldimann, the Swiss ambassador who served as the intermediary, was freelancing.
Four Presidents before George Bush have tried the negotiation route with Iran, which ended in failure and humiliation. Negotiations between Iran and the Europeans have also proven fruitless for years. The Iranians simply used these negotiations as a cover to buy time for their uranium enrichment program. So there was no reason to expect an even more ambitious negotiation of a comprehensive peace to have any chance of success – in 2003 or today. In any case, the purported offer contained in the 2003 letter was made by the reformist regime that was subsequently swept out of the government by the arch-conservative mullahs and their hand-picked President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the map. That is not a starting point for real negotiations to any rational person.
Nevertheless, let us assume for the moment that Porter is right and the letter is legitimate. If so, the Iranians effectively conceded their influence and involvement with the terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad by offering for negotiation the following:
“1) stop of any material support to Palestinian opposition groups (Hamas, Jihad etc.) from Iranian territory, pressure on these organizations to stop violent action against civilians within borders of 1967.
2) action on Hizbollah to become a mere political organization within Lebanon”
The letter also pledged “Iranian commitment for enhanced action against Al Qaida members in Iran” which can be taken as an admission that Osama bin Laden’s gang was finding refuge there.
Of course, we do not need the letter to substantiate the Iranian regime’s funding, training and harboring of terrorists who serve as their proxies to kill innocent civilians in the name of their fanatical Islamic theology. The proof of their complicity in terrorist acts around the world and in the killing of Americans since the mullahs came to power in 1979 is overwhelming. At long last, the Bush Administration has decided to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, which will allow our government to put more economic pressure on international companies that continue to do business with these thugs and to strike them wherever we find them.
Years before Porter decided to attack his own country for questioning the Iranian theocracy’s good intentions, he had defended one of the worst genocidal regimes in modern times next to Nazi Germany – the Khmer Rouge, which had slaughtered more than a million of their own people in Cambodia after the United States pulled its troops out of the region. He praised the “new revolutionary government” for its food policy and denied that a systematic slaughter of this scale ever took place. In testimony before a Congressional committee as a so-called expert on Southeast Asia at the time, he called reports of such mass slaughter nothing more than a “myth” perpetrated by the authors of a Reader’s Digest book and publicized by Time Magazine. This caused Democratic Congressman Solarz to compare Porter’s denial of the Cambodian genocide to the rants one would expect from a Nazi Holocaust denier.
Perhaps the statement in Porter’s Congressional testimony that reveals the most about the radical Left mindset is the following:
“There has been and will be a price paid in human lives, in hardship and suffering, and in the loss of certain values, in the revolutionary transformation of any society. Cambodia is no exception to that principle.”
Flash forward to today. The Iranian Islamic regime is killing its own people in the largest wave of executions in Iran since 1984 when Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the shooting of thousands of political prisoners. Over the past two months alone, at least 118 people have been executed, including four who were stoned to death. It has been reported that one hundred fifty more people, including five women, are scheduled to be hanged or stoned to death in the near future.
We do not hear a peep from the radical Left about such human rights atrocities committed in the name of Islamic ideology. After all, there is “a price paid in human lives…in the revolutionary transformation of any society.” Indeed, the Iranian regime born in revolution against Western influence is one that Porter and his fellow Leftists appear to trust more than they trust their own government. In their worldview, if it were not for Bush’s refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the Islamic theocracy ruling Iran and his “administration's drive for greater dominance in the Middle East”, everything would be coming up roses in our relationship with Iran.
Denying the realities of mass slaughters committed by Communist totalitarian states and Islamic jihadists, radical Leftists have long been accustomed to believing the best about our enemies and the worst about our democratically elected leaders. To them, revolutionary transformation of societies to some utopian notion of perfection can excuse the blood that must be spilt to achieve the revolutionary goals. They would do well to pay heed to these telling words of Prophet Isaiah, but alas they never will: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; they put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Woe
Joseph A. Klein
Fresh Call for Unity
Leader: Britain Holds Record of Dividing Muslims
TEHRAN, Aug. 19--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei called for promotion of teachings of the infallible household of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
In a meeting with foreign dignitaries attending the Fourth Conference of Ahl-ul-Bayt World Assembly, Ayatollah Khamenei called for studying the realities and exigencies of the Muslim world, IRNA reported.
Referring to UK’s record in creating rifts among Islamic sects, the leader opined that the arrogant world powers consider Muslim unity as very dangerous and worrying.
“In addition to Britain, the US and Zionist intelligence services are doing their best to prevent Muslims from consolidating unity,“ he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei also noted that promotion of Islam throughout the world, especially after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, has made the arrogant world powers sow discord between Iran and other Muslim states.
“Another serious concern of world’s big powers is worldwide opposition to foreign domination over Muslim nations,“ he said.
The leader pointed out that promotion of Islamic identity and Muslim vigilance led to Islam’s victory over the unjust and arrogant powers. Ayatollah Khamenei felicitated Muslims worldwide on the auspicious occasion of the lunar month of Sha’ban.
“Islam has been promoted around the world to such an extent that it is not comparable with the past 20 years, despite the propaganda of the West against the Islamic schools of thought,“ he said.
The leader also said science and technology have dramatically advanced in the world as compared with the past 20 years and the US has become weaker, so it does not have the same power and authority it enjoyed 20 years ago.
“The US and its followers have been entangled in a quagmire and they are going down further as time passes and a gloomy prospect is awaiting them,“ he said..
Leader: Britain Holds Record of Dividing Muslims
TEHRAN, Aug. 19--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei called for promotion of teachings of the infallible household of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
In a meeting with foreign dignitaries attending the Fourth Conference of Ahl-ul-Bayt World Assembly, Ayatollah Khamenei called for studying the realities and exigencies of the Muslim world, IRNA reported.
Referring to UK’s record in creating rifts among Islamic sects, the leader opined that the arrogant world powers consider Muslim unity as very dangerous and worrying.
“In addition to Britain, the US and Zionist intelligence services are doing their best to prevent Muslims from consolidating unity,“ he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei also noted that promotion of Islam throughout the world, especially after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, has made the arrogant world powers sow discord between Iran and other Muslim states.
“Another serious concern of world’s big powers is worldwide opposition to foreign domination over Muslim nations,“ he said.
The leader pointed out that promotion of Islamic identity and Muslim vigilance led to Islam’s victory over the unjust and arrogant powers. Ayatollah Khamenei felicitated Muslims worldwide on the auspicious occasion of the lunar month of Sha’ban.
“Islam has been promoted around the world to such an extent that it is not comparable with the past 20 years, despite the propaganda of the West against the Islamic schools of thought,“ he said.
The leader also said science and technology have dramatically advanced in the world as compared with the past 20 years and the US has become weaker, so it does not have the same power and authority it enjoyed 20 years ago.
“The US and its followers have been entangled in a quagmire and they are going down further as time passes and a gloomy prospect is awaiting them,“ he said..
Now, the rest of the story-yet you blamed Israel!
EU: Funding fuel for Gaza depends on Hamas
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 20, 2007
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The European Union said Monday it would resume the financing of fuel deliveries to Gaza only when it gets assurances that Hamas will not introduce taxes on electricity bills.
Power was cut in parts of the Gaza Strip on Sunday after the EU halted funding for fuel deliveries to the impoverished territory's sole power plant.
The government of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, formed in the West Bank after Hamas took over Gaza, charged the group with responsibility for the power shortage. It said the EU ceased payment because Hamas took over the electricity company and started collecting the revenues.
The EU said it had decided on Thursday that it would suspend the payments for security reasons, particularly due to tensions at the crossing points into Gaza.
EU: Funding fuel for Gaza depends on Hamas
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 20, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The European Union said Monday it would resume the financing of fuel deliveries to Gaza only when it gets assurances that Hamas will not introduce taxes on electricity bills.
Power was cut in parts of the Gaza Strip on Sunday after the EU halted funding for fuel deliveries to the impoverished territory's sole power plant.
The government of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, formed in the West Bank after Hamas took over Gaza, charged the group with responsibility for the power shortage. It said the EU ceased payment because Hamas took over the electricity company and started collecting the revenues.
The EU said it had decided on Thursday that it would suspend the payments for security reasons, particularly due to tensions at the crossing points into Gaza.
Comment: What does Washington DC say? Nothing-watch out!
Iranian state TV: Ahmadinejad to visit Baghdad
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 20, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Baghdad soon in what will be the first-ever visit of an Iranian president to Iraq, a state television channel said on its Web site Monday.
The invitation for Ahmadinejad came during a recent visit here by the Iraqi prime minister, Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying on the Web site of English Press TV channel.
The date of Ahmadinejad's visit to Baghdad has not been fixed yet but would be soon announced, Mottaki said.
Iranian state TV: Ahmadinejad to visit Baghdad
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 20, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Baghdad soon in what will be the first-ever visit of an Iranian president to Iraq, a state television channel said on its Web site Monday.
The invitation for Ahmadinejad came during a recent visit here by the Iraqi prime minister, Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying on the Web site of English Press TV channel.
The date of Ahmadinejad's visit to Baghdad has not been fixed yet but would be soon announced, Mottaki said.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
What's the Point-Cowards?
'UNIFIL won't receive power boost in southern Lebanon'
JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST
Aug. 19, 2007
The cabinet agreed on Sunday to support the extension of the UNIFIL mandate in southern Lebanon, although the Foreign Ministry said the multinational force would not receive any additional concrete powers in the new mandate. Foreign Ministry director-general Avraham Abramovich told the cabinet that the members of the UNIFIL force - put in place as part of a cease-fire agreement following the Second Lebanon War last summer - were not prepared to increase activity against Hizbullah, insofar as closing the border with Syria and enforcing an arms embargo.
However, Abramovich noted that despite the lack of action, the UN will reiterate its demand that Hizbullah immediately release kidnapped IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, and call for a weapons-free zone south of the Litani River.
Earlier this month, The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel has been working through diplomatic channels to insert several changes in the UNIFIL mandate in Lebanon to make sure that international forces in the South patrol more in urban areas.
The mandate of the 13,600-strong UN peacekeeping force is due to expire at the end of August.
Comment: This is a waste of USA taxpayer monies. UN "peacekeeping", huh, troops do nothing. Hizzbollah has re-armed itself, re-stocked its supplies, created new launch sites within civilian areas, missiles have been brought in! You can't accurately say they were smuggled in because this was all done in the open, daylight, in front of the "peace keepers". This is a charade beyond proportions!!
JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST
Aug. 19, 2007
The cabinet agreed on Sunday to support the extension of the UNIFIL mandate in southern Lebanon, although the Foreign Ministry said the multinational force would not receive any additional concrete powers in the new mandate. Foreign Ministry director-general Avraham Abramovich told the cabinet that the members of the UNIFIL force - put in place as part of a cease-fire agreement following the Second Lebanon War last summer - were not prepared to increase activity against Hizbullah, insofar as closing the border with Syria and enforcing an arms embargo.
However, Abramovich noted that despite the lack of action, the UN will reiterate its demand that Hizbullah immediately release kidnapped IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, and call for a weapons-free zone south of the Litani River.
Earlier this month, The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel has been working through diplomatic channels to insert several changes in the UNIFIL mandate in Lebanon to make sure that international forces in the South patrol more in urban areas.
The mandate of the 13,600-strong UN peacekeeping force is due to expire at the end of August.
Comment: This is a waste of USA taxpayer monies. UN "peacekeeping", huh, troops do nothing. Hizzbollah has re-armed itself, re-stocked its supplies, created new launch sites within civilian areas, missiles have been brought in! You can't accurately say they were smuggled in because this was all done in the open, daylight, in front of the "peace keepers". This is a charade beyond proportions!!
Turning our backs on the soldiers
Nowadays as the draft dodging phenomenon is breaking records, the state is deserting those who served their country by withholding a significant benefit
David Regev
According to a new regulation of the Finance Ministry, soldiers who completed their IDF service will no longer be eligible for unemployment allowance following discharge. Thousands of soldiers who use the funds in the intermediate period following the completion of their duty and the time they find a job will have to find other means for sustaining themselves.
Of the 70,000 soldiers who are released from the army every year, 24,000 – primarily from lower socio-economic backgrounds – apply for unemployment allowance. Avi Tzarfati, an activist that aids the soldiers on issues relating to Social Security, explained that the newly-released soldiers would be eligible for the allowance only after if the employment bureau could not place them in a job.
The monthly allowance in the sum of NIS 2,100 ($500) was given to about 6,600 former soldiers with the goal of assisting them in integrating into the workforce. Initially the young men and women were eligible for allowance for a period of six months, which was later shortened to three months.
Yet, a year ago, the Finance Ministry decided to cut back on this expense and cancel it. The rational was the saving of over NIS 100 million (about $24 million) a year, and the desire to "educate" the former soldiers to become self-sustaining, productive citizens.
Nitzan Harel, who was released last week from three-year active duty in the artillery corps, said: "I applied for several positions but was rejected because I didn't have any experience since I enlisted immediately after I graduated high-school. I finally found an employer who was willing to give me a chance, but many of my fiends are still looking. I don't understand this decision. After risking my life for this country for a few hundred shekels a month, I deserve this allowance."
Nowadays as the draft dodging phenomenon is breaking records, the state is deserting those who served their country by withholding a significant benefit
David Regev
According to a new regulation of the Finance Ministry, soldiers who completed their IDF service will no longer be eligible for unemployment allowance following discharge. Thousands of soldiers who use the funds in the intermediate period following the completion of their duty and the time they find a job will have to find other means for sustaining themselves.
Of the 70,000 soldiers who are released from the army every year, 24,000 – primarily from lower socio-economic backgrounds – apply for unemployment allowance. Avi Tzarfati, an activist that aids the soldiers on issues relating to Social Security, explained that the newly-released soldiers would be eligible for the allowance only after if the employment bureau could not place them in a job.
The monthly allowance in the sum of NIS 2,100 ($500) was given to about 6,600 former soldiers with the goal of assisting them in integrating into the workforce. Initially the young men and women were eligible for allowance for a period of six months, which was later shortened to three months.
Yet, a year ago, the Finance Ministry decided to cut back on this expense and cancel it. The rational was the saving of over NIS 100 million (about $24 million) a year, and the desire to "educate" the former soldiers to become self-sustaining, productive citizens.
Nitzan Harel, who was released last week from three-year active duty in the artillery corps, said: "I applied for several positions but was rejected because I didn't have any experience since I enlisted immediately after I graduated high-school. I finally found an employer who was willing to give me a chance, but many of my fiends are still looking. I don't understand this decision. After risking my life for this country for a few hundred shekels a month, I deserve this allowance."
Lebanon in Sderot
Lebanon failures repeated in bombarded southern town; now we need to win
Uzi Dayan
Sderot and its vicinity have experienced another stormy week. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who visited the city with Holocaust survivor Tom Lantos, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that "in Israel we live under a constant barrage of Qassams." Well, not in the whole of Israel – only in Sderot and vicinity. Sometimes it is reported in the press and sometimes it is not.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who also joined the tour, pledged to fund the fortification of the community center. If the State doesn’t help, philanthropists will do the job - if not Gaydamak, then Ellison.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quoted as saying that Mahmoud Abbas is unable to "deliver the goods" and that a diplomatic settlement with the Palestinians is a fantasy. It's true. So what's to be done? Keep talking about removing the checkpoints.
And again this morning, there was another brief and routine report that Qassam rockets "landed" in Sderot. No injuries were reported. What are we waiting for? For the moment that a rocket hits a kindergarten, heaven forbid?
Terrible sense that there is no leadership
And thus, three failures that characterized the Second Lebanon War are repeating themselves, live from Sderot.
• Decision-making: Then, they didn't understand that it was war and acted based on shortsighted impulse, whereas today they are unable to make clear-cut decisions with well defined missions, as required in a state of war for all intents and purposes.
• Deploying the military: Then, they didn't know how to deploy a large and powerful ground force, which wasn't even called up on time. Then as now, a large army is lying around idly, awaiting orders that are not forthcoming.
• The home front continues to be abandoned: After years of Qassam rocket fire in the Gaza region (to date, over 2,500 Qassam rockets were fired on Sderot alone,) there are still more than 1,500 unfortified houses, most places of work do not have an adequate solution, and educational institutions in the area are unprepared for the opening of the next school year. Then as now, the sovereign is "chalking up points" by announcing that it "will not fortify itself to death." So for your information – the entire investment in fortification doesn't reach a single percent of the overall defense budget.
The failures of the last war and their continuation today leave us with a terrible sense that there is no leadership; that there is no direction and no responsibility. We should do what we were not smart enough to do during the Second Lebanon War – win.
Take control of Egyptian border
Yes, there is a military response to the two key strategic objectives facing us: Preventing fatal Qassam rocket fire on the residents of Sderot and vicinity and preventing Hamas from becoming Hizbullah number 2 within a short timeframe.
To this end, the Gaza Strip should be isolated and we should intensify targeted killings, economic pressure and operations against Hamas. Forces should be deployed into areas from which rockets are being fired, the Philadelphi Route should be re-occupied, and we should take control of the Israeli-Egyptian border, which we should not have left in the first place.
The humanitarian issues that would emerge as a result of these policies should be dealt with sensitively, but we should make it clear that we too have a humanitarian problem – our abducted soldiers.
This military response must be used in order to give the residents of Sderot and its vicinity the security that every citizen is entitled to, but also to restore the sense of security of Israelis who are asking "how can we depend on a leadership that failed us in Lebanon that cannot provide an answer to the Qassam fire and deal with the Iranian nuclear threat?"
Indeed how? Everyone - from Sderot to Ramallah and Damascus, Hamastan and Tehran - is waiting for the answer to this question, which should come out of Jerusalem and constitute a key element of our policy regarding the Palestinian issue.
Major General (Res.) Uzi Dayan is chairman of the Tafnit movement and a former National Security Council
Lebanon failures repeated in bombarded southern town; now we need to win
Uzi Dayan
Sderot and its vicinity have experienced another stormy week. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who visited the city with Holocaust survivor Tom Lantos, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that "in Israel we live under a constant barrage of Qassams." Well, not in the whole of Israel – only in Sderot and vicinity. Sometimes it is reported in the press and sometimes it is not.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who also joined the tour, pledged to fund the fortification of the community center. If the State doesn’t help, philanthropists will do the job - if not Gaydamak, then Ellison.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quoted as saying that Mahmoud Abbas is unable to "deliver the goods" and that a diplomatic settlement with the Palestinians is a fantasy. It's true. So what's to be done? Keep talking about removing the checkpoints.
And again this morning, there was another brief and routine report that Qassam rockets "landed" in Sderot. No injuries were reported. What are we waiting for? For the moment that a rocket hits a kindergarten, heaven forbid?
Terrible sense that there is no leadership
And thus, three failures that characterized the Second Lebanon War are repeating themselves, live from Sderot.
• Decision-making: Then, they didn't understand that it was war and acted based on shortsighted impulse, whereas today they are unable to make clear-cut decisions with well defined missions, as required in a state of war for all intents and purposes.
• Deploying the military: Then, they didn't know how to deploy a large and powerful ground force, which wasn't even called up on time. Then as now, a large army is lying around idly, awaiting orders that are not forthcoming.
• The home front continues to be abandoned: After years of Qassam rocket fire in the Gaza region (to date, over 2,500 Qassam rockets were fired on Sderot alone,) there are still more than 1,500 unfortified houses, most places of work do not have an adequate solution, and educational institutions in the area are unprepared for the opening of the next school year. Then as now, the sovereign is "chalking up points" by announcing that it "will not fortify itself to death." So for your information – the entire investment in fortification doesn't reach a single percent of the overall defense budget.
The failures of the last war and their continuation today leave us with a terrible sense that there is no leadership; that there is no direction and no responsibility. We should do what we were not smart enough to do during the Second Lebanon War – win.
Take control of Egyptian border
Yes, there is a military response to the two key strategic objectives facing us: Preventing fatal Qassam rocket fire on the residents of Sderot and vicinity and preventing Hamas from becoming Hizbullah number 2 within a short timeframe.
To this end, the Gaza Strip should be isolated and we should intensify targeted killings, economic pressure and operations against Hamas. Forces should be deployed into areas from which rockets are being fired, the Philadelphi Route should be re-occupied, and we should take control of the Israeli-Egyptian border, which we should not have left in the first place.
The humanitarian issues that would emerge as a result of these policies should be dealt with sensitively, but we should make it clear that we too have a humanitarian problem – our abducted soldiers.
This military response must be used in order to give the residents of Sderot and its vicinity the security that every citizen is entitled to, but also to restore the sense of security of Israelis who are asking "how can we depend on a leadership that failed us in Lebanon that cannot provide an answer to the Qassam fire and deal with the Iranian nuclear threat?"
Indeed how? Everyone - from Sderot to Ramallah and Damascus, Hamastan and Tehran - is waiting for the answer to this question, which should come out of Jerusalem and constitute a key element of our policy regarding the Palestinian issue.
Major General (Res.) Uzi Dayan is chairman of the Tafnit movement and a former National Security Council
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