"Is It Just Me?"

Arlene Kushner

Last week, Syrian president Bashar Assad, in a statement made to Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, which was carried by Syrian media, observed that, "Israel is not serious about achieving peace since all facts point out that Israel is pushing the region towards war, not peace."

This was followed by a statement Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem that "Israel should not test Syria's determination. ... Israel knows that war will move to the Israeli cities. ... Israel has to commit to the just and comprehensive peace requirements.This is saber rattling, with the message being that we had better start thinking about relinquishing the Golan Heights (which is the Syrian version of "just and comprehensive peace requirements").

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Our Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who takes no guff from anyone, responded in a speech at Bar Ilan University on Thursday:

"Assad should know that if he attacks, he will not only lose the war. Neither he nor his family will remain in power.

"Our message should be that if Assad's father lost a war but remained in power, the son should know that an attack would cost him his regime. This is the message that must be conveyed to the Syrian leader by Israel."

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Thus my question: Am I the only one who thinks this tough talk is just fine?

Some members of the Knesset were horrified. And Netanyahu's office released a statement indicating, "that the government's policy is clear: Israel's face is directed to peace and carrying out diplomatic negotiations with Syria without preconditions."

Tensions have been high between Syria and Israel, and the Prime Minister was seeking to cool things down. The question is whether "talking nice" genuinely serves our interests better than tough talk does.

Lieberman would say that it does not. In an interview on Friday, in which he defended himself, he commented that, "I don't work for the media or for public opinion.

"A red line was crossed like we have never seen before. A direct threat to attack population centers. What I said was at the right time in the right dosage...

"I think that the Golan Heights need to remain a part of Israel..."

"My response, which I made in order to clarify that the situation [with Syria] is unbearable, was immediately met with a hysterical reaction in Israel of 'how dare we anger the nobleman.'

He said that he found it unfortunate the Israeli left tends to react as it does: "I think that in the Middle East, we cannot let grave things go without a response."

To this, I say, Right on!

When he speaks of how the left reacts, he means with an attitude of appeasement, or self-abasement. What I would questions is whether it's only the left that this is true of. It's a very bad, and fairly mainstream, mode of thinking here in Israel.

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I far prefer the tone of Lieberman to that of Defense Minister Ehud Barak (and yes, he's on the left), who spoke last week at the Herzliya Conference. It was critical, he said, to begin negotiations with Syria soon, while Assad perceived us as being strong. "In the absence of a deal with Syria, we could reach an armed conflict that could develop into a full fledged war."

But what does this mean? He seems to be suggesting that it's not enough to talk to Syria, we must reach a deal. If Syria insists that "a deal" requires us to relinquish the Golan, does that mean we relinquish it to avoid an "armed conflict" that could lead to "a full fledged war"? Hopefully this is not what Barak meant, but it sure sounds like it -- sounds like he advocates our making concessions to avoid that war. This sort of talk renders us weak, not strong.

There is an increase in the warlike bombast coming from Syria, and thus unease about the possibility that we're facing war to the north. Caroline Glick certainly voiced this opinion in her Friday column.

Strong means delivering to Assad the sort of message that came from Lieberman: Don't even think of starting with us, or you'll be the loser.

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If you agree with me, you can tell Defense Minister Lieberman you're behind him:

Phone: 02-675-3231 (From the US: 011-972-2-675-3231)

Fax: 02-640-8921 (From the US: 011-972-2-640-8921)

E-mail: aliberman@knesset.gov.il

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Glick, by the way, noted that the "incendiary comments threatening Israel with war" came from the Syrian government on "the same day that the US informed Syria of its intention to send an ambassador to Damascus for the first time in five years."

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As to our strength, or deterrence power, I note this aside, which I've picked up from a couple of different sources now:

While we are being accused of having assassinated key Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month, we are certainly not taking credit for this, and indications are that there were many others who would have been glad to eliminate him. (Latest news is that those who assassinated al-Mabhouh used Irish passports.)

Whatever the case, the word on the Arab street is that we did it. And so, whether we actually did or not, the perception that we are capable of this increases our deterrence. Perception is all important.

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Yes, I confess, I missed it entirely, even though I had written about this in the past:

Last January there was a fight between the PA and Hamas regarding when Mahmoud Abbas's term as PA president was over. Hamas said the term was for four years, and Abbas had served for four years, so he was out.

The PA argued that the election for president that placed Abbas in office was held a year earlier than would be the case normally -- at a time that coincided with parliamentary elections, because Arafat had died and his successor had to be chosen. Thus, went the argument, Abbas would stay in office for five years.

Well, as of last month the five years was also over. But of course no elections were held because Hamas will not permit balloting in Gaza. So where does this leave Abbas now? He's a lame, lame-duck president. Or something.

What, we may ask, gives him legitimacy to negotiate anything? The issue is moot with regard to the legislature, which is not meeting in any event. But Abbas is carrying on, as if...

And the Obama administration, which is pushing "peace negotiations," ignores these niceties all together.

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Abbas, meanwhile has said he is considering the Obama proposal for indirect negotiations and will announce a decision. He indicated, however, that the PA was not willing to "offer more compromises" to get the process going.

"More"? Incredible.

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I refer above to the speech by Barak at the Herzliya Conference and now want to return to discuss what Prime Minister Netanyahu said at the same conference, which offered a generous measure of good news.

Netanyahu said -- this is NOT the good news -- that he had reason to believe that within weeks talks with the Palestinian Arabs would begin again, without preconditions. I have no idea what prompted him to make this announcement, which seems very far removed from the reality (unless he was referring to the "proximity" diplomacy), or why he should consider this a positive. It seems mostly pro forma, rather than something of import to him.

But what did have import was his statement that:

“Here in the land of our fathers, which is also the land of our children and grandchildren, in order to determine our fate we need to strengthen our collective efforts in three primary spheres: security, economy and education.”

He then spoke about security, and the need to strengthen the IDF, because “The weak do not survive in the difficult geographic region in which we find ourselves.” And of the need to have a vibrant economy to support the defense needs.

However, he said, what is also needed is a commitment from the people, and an understanding of why we are here. And for this, we must look to education, with the strengthening and deepening of “all of our connection to each other and this place...I think that this type of education begins with the Book of Books, it begins with the Bible.”

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He added, with regard to the Bible, that “this is a subject close to my heart these days.”

This is clearly the case, in part, because his son, Avner, 15, just won the Jerusalem Regional Bible Quiz for state schools -- which perhaps tells us something. But I think, from off-the-record information I've received, that he's coming closer to Jewish tradition for other reasons as well.

Just as he says that the people need the connection to the Bible, to understand why we are here, so is his connection heartening, because it will help point him in the right direction.

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Netanyahu is absolutely on the mark in fingering the need for the people of Israel to understand why we are here. The education necessary for the survival of Israel, he said, starts with the Bible and moves through our history to the Zionist present.

That he says this is exceedingly good news. So often I've lamented the fact that our leaders have failed to tell our narrative. But here he's prepared to recapture it.

Very soon, said the prime minister, he was going to be introducing a "Heritage Plan" to preserve archeological sites and historical sites. There will also be museums, where documents and photographs and films will be preserved and made available to the public.

Part of this heritage plan, said Netanyahu, would be the introduction of two Trails, to complement the already existing Israel Trail. Studies show that young people who have walked the land are highly motivated to serve in the military -- they feel connected to the land.

Now there will be a "Land of Israel trail, which will connect between dozens of ancient archaeological sites. Within our tiny piece of land, there are 30,000 ancient sites, 800 of which have clear national importance. Sadly, only 50 of those sites are open to the public, and even they are not in great shape. That is going to change on a huge scale.

"The second trail will be the "Israel Experience" trail. This trail will include the treasures of our country, and will serve as a living Land of Israel museum. It will connect between dozens of stops celebrating the history of the Jewish Yishuv [the Jewish population before the establishment of the State of Israel]. It will include historic buildings, settlement sites, small museums, memorial sites and personal stories - all of which are part of our Zionist heritage."

"I know people will ask: 'This is the topic you chose to speak of here, at a discussion about our national strength?" My answer is yes. Sometimes small steps lead to great things."

This plan, if carried out, is nothing short of marvelous.

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You can see his entire talk here:

http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=47134

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Please, thank Netanyahu for his vision.

Ask him to be sure that the plan will include archeological and historical sites beyond the Green Line, which is where much of our ancient history unfolded:

Fax: 02-670-5369 (From the US: 011-972-2-670-5369)



Phone: 03-610-9898 (From the US: 011-972-3-610-9898)



E-mail: Memshala@pmo.gov.il and also pm_eng2@it.pmo.gov.il (underscore after pm) use both addresses

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see my website www.ArlenefromIsrael.info

SYRIA AND EGYPT - MORE DANGEROUS FOR ISRAEL THAN IRAN?

"Israel knows that if it declares war on Syria, such a war will reach its cities as well. Israel is sowing an atmosphere of war in the region. Once they threaten Gaza, once southern Lebanon, then Iran and now Syria. We are saying to them, 'Stop playing the role of villain in the region.' Syria does not rule out the possibility of an Israeli attack, as that entity lives on aggressiveness. If Israel touches southern Lebanon or Syria, this will turn into an all-out war." - Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, February 3, 2010 In light of this most recent threat from the Syrian Foreign Minister, we thought it would be good to circulate the article written in January this year by Jan Willem van der Hoeven:


Peace, real peace comes through victory, not through endless negotiations.

Had England or the Allied Forces taken seriously Adolf Hitler's peace initiative when he sent his deputy, Rudolf Hess to Britain - no peace would have come to the European continent. To attain a true peace you have to win a war.

Britain, thank God, understood what few in today's Israel understand.

This is the theme that which is repeated over and over again in the very Book the Jewish people were a channel for giving to the world; yet they themselves are so woefully ignorant of this lesson.

Here is one such passage:

And Elisha said to him, "Take a bow and some arrows." So he took himself a bow and some arrows. Then he said to the king of Israel, "Put your hand on the bow." So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king's hands.And he said, "Open the east window"; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, "Shoot"; and he shot. And he said, "The arrow of the LORD's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them."Then he said, "Take the arrows"; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground"; so he struck three times, and stopped.And the man of God was angry with him, and said, "You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times." (2 Kings 13:15-19)

While Christians are taught, in relation to personal life, to turn the other cheek and to pray for their enemies, the same Scriptures they hold dear also teach that 'government does not bear the sword in vain,' and under God Himself every honorable government has the national duty to defend and protect, in the best possible way, the citizens entrusted to their care. This of course is also true in relation to the government of Israel, surrounded on all sides - as it is today - by fierce and deadly enemies intent on her final destruction.

In the former building of Yad Vashem, commemorating the victims of the dreadful Holocaust of the Jewish people, who perished under the Nazis often with the willful compliance of many of the virulent anti-Semites in the countries in which they perpetrated their monstrous act, a photograph was exhibited of the cordial meeting in Berlin between the Fuhrer and the then leader of the Palestinian people: the Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini of Jerusalem. For those who have the willingness to see and comprehend - this picture says it all.

A deep, deep hatred for the Jewish people existed in the Muslim Palestinian leadership long years before the Jews had their independent state. It is not for nothing that Muslim children often reveal what they have learned and believe from their superiors to be their ultimate aim and fervent desire, when during wars with Israel they sing: "First we will kill the Saturday people (= the Jews), and then we will kill the Sunday people (= the Christians)."

To varying degrees, each Muslim-controlled nation shares this dream and desire - NOT a dream, like that nurtured by so many, many Israelis, for a peaceful coexistence with their former enemies, but a dream wherein the Muslim Middle East will one day be free of the cancerous growth called Israel. That is the goal for which most of the Muslim nations, if not all, have been striving and still strive today!

Every honest observer and student of history can learn this disturbing reality from what follows. Though many may, at first, be unwilling to come to grips with it - there is after all not so much difference between what the Nazis wanted - the excising of the Jewish cancer in their midst - and what the majority of today's ferocious enemies of Israel aspire to: the dissolution of the hated Jewish state in their Muslim midst!

The origins of this present hatred amazingly lay in Egypt, the very nation with which Israel has made a kind of peace; a shaky peace, because even President Anwar Al Sadat tried his utmost include a clause during the drawing up of the Camp David Accords which, even as he signed a kind of peace treaty, would give Egypt the right to again go to war against Israel if Israel attacked any other Arab states with which Egypt was in league.

Seeing through Sadat's very clever ruse, Menachem Begin threw up his hands and exclaimed that in that case he, as prime minister of Israel, would be signing not a treaty of peace, but of war, giving Egypt by his very signature the right to make war again on the Jewish state when Egypt perceived it its brotherly, Islamic duty to come again to the aid of Israel's other enemies when they were threatened by Israel.

What this means is that Sadat's peace plan was, in reality, a cleverly calculated sham, which the majority of often-gullible Israeli politicians and people were quick to ignore or deny.

Two Israelis who did have the courage and intellectual honesty to see through this wrote as follows.

Sadat also rejected Article 6, section 5 of the November 11, 1978 American draft treaty according to which "The parties undertake to fulfill in good faith their obligations under the treaty ... independently of any instrument external to the treaty." This provision would have given the treaty precedence not only over the West Bank/Gaza issue (on which Sadat wanted the exchange of ambassadors to depend), but also over any agreement which Egypt has with other Arab states. It nullified in effect, Egypt's log-standing membership in the united Arab front of aggression against Israel. Thus, in rejecting Article 6, section 5 of the draft treaty, Sadat was simply looking for a legal loophole to "justify" breaking off diplomatic relations with Israel at his convenience, while continuing to pursue his strategy of conquest. The final "peace" treaty leaves this matter comfortably ambiguous. (Indeed, hardly was the ink dry on the treaty when, in April 1979, Egyptian Prime Minister Mustapha Khalil declared: "If Syria goes to war to liberate the Golan, this could be considered a defensive war and the joint Arab Defense Pact [sic] could be invoked." (Sadat's Strategy by Paul Eidelberg, Dawn Publishing Company, Quebec, Canada, 1979. pp 20-21)

And if this was not enough, on December 4, 1948, Sadat's Deputy Prime Minister, Fahri Makram Abid , declared that "the treaty with Israel is not the end but only a frame for realizing the aims of the Arabs ... In the future we shall demand of Israel to relinquish its Zionist goals ... to abolish its 'law of return' ... to abandon the idea of its historical rights to the land of Israel and ... to stop the immigration of Jews to Israel." To demand this of Israel is to call for its termination as a sovereign state. (Ibid. pp 86-87)

Shmuel Katz, a close advisor and confidant of Menachem Begin who was present at the peace talks in Washington, related this episode of duplicity:

In Jerusalem he [President Jimmy Carter] was received gloomily. The atmosphere of crisis clouded all the courses at the State dinner given in his honor. Begin, in his speech there, again announced that the situation in the negotiations was critical. He was outspoken. "It is impossible to demand of us that we sign a peace treaty which from the outset gives legitimacy to whoever violates it." The next morning it became known that the government of Israel had proved that it was definitely possible "to demand of Israel that it sign a peace treaty that from the outset gives legitimacy to whoever violates it." Begin had again capitulated.

The peace treaty between Israel and Egypt includes an Appendix (described as "Agreed Minutes",) which provides an interpretation to paragraph 5 of Article 6 of the Peace Treaty. It reads:

"It is agreed by the Parties that there is no assertion that this Treaty prevails over other Treaties or agreements or that other Treaties or agreements prevail over this Treaty. The foregoing is not to be construed as contravening the provisions of Article VI (5) of the Treaty, which reads as follows:

'Subject to Article 103 of the United Nations Charter, in the event of a conflict between the obligations of the Parties under the present Treaty and any of their obligations, the obligations of this treaty will be binding and implemented.'"

The first part of the interpretative article nullifies the priority status of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. It accords Egypt license to go to war with Israel together with an Arab country or several Arab countries whenever convenient to her or to them. ...

With the introduction of Clause 6 in the "agreed minutes" Egypt's future war against Israel will be represented as honoring a commitment whose legality Israel itself had recognized. (The Hollow Peace by Shmuel Katz, Published by Dvir Co. Ltd. and The Jerusalem Post, 1981, pp 298, 299, emphasis in the original.)

For many today, the above-mentioned facts may be brushed aside as nothing more than interesting footnotes of modern Middle Eastern history. If true, however, then with the ever-growing radicalization of ISLAM as we have recently seen in Turkey, Egypt may as yet pose a serious and singular threat to Israel.

Certainly, then, Egypt may also soon turn into a warring enemy that Israel will have to face.

Let us not forget that Egypt already initiated two major wars against Israel: The Six Day War under Gamal Abdul Nasser, and the Yom Kippur War under the devious Anwar Al Sadat. On top of that, Egypt has been - and is increasingly again -the breeding ground for the worst kind of Islamic fundamentalists who gave rise to some of Israel's most vociferous and dangerous enemies.

This is how authors David Dalin and John Rothmann describe this phenomenon in their book "Icon of Evil."

As the convener and president of the World Islamic Congress, Haj Amin al-Husseini was now increasingly recognized as the preeminent voice of radical Islam and a new and powerful force on the world political scene. ... Many future leaders of radical Islam, such as Egyptian presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Al Sadat, began their political careers as young activists in the Muslim Brotherhood during the 1930s. Youssef Nada, chairman of Al Taqwa Bank, joined the Muslim Brotherhood during World War II, when he was recruited along with others in the Muslim Brotherhood by German military intelligence agents supervised by the mufti for espionage against the British colonial government in Egypt. Yasser Arafat became active in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 1950s.

The Muslim Brotherhood had been founded in Cairo by al-Husseini's ideological soul-mate, Hassan al-Banna, a young Egyptian schoolteacher...

The Muslim Brotherhood, a forerunner of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al-Qaeda, was established as a pan-Islamic movement that believed in the virtue of a one-world Islamic utopia and the use of terrorism, when necessary, to achieve its goal. From the brotherhood's inception, jihad (holy war) became one of its central tenets. Members of the brotherhood emphasized the honor and reverence given to those who sacrifice their lives as jihadist martyrs in the name of Islam, proclaiming, "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Koran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the name of Allah is our highest hope." ...

The rise of radical Islam, and the evolution of its political and religious worldview, drew further inspiration from the writings of the Muslim Brotherhood's most influential theoretician, Sayyid Qutb ...

...Qutb had a profound ideological influence on the emerging radical Islamic movement, including its principle leaders - ranging from al-Husseini and al-Banna in the 1930s to Yasser Arafat, Ayatollah Khomeini, and Osama bin Laden in later decades - and its principle terrorist organizations - Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and al-Qaeda. Together, al-Husseini, al-Banna, and Qutb constituted the founding fathers of radical Islam as we know it today. ...

Another protégé of the mufti, and for many years one of his most trusted allies and loyal political supporters, was future Egyptian president Anwar Al Sadat. Sadat, like his close fried and associate Gamal Abdel Nasser, whom he succeeded as president of Egypt, had begin his political career in the mid-1930s as a teenage activist with the Muslim Brotherhood. It was through his early political activity with the brotherhood that Sadat (like Nasser) had first met al-Husseini. Both Sadat and Nasser boasted a long history of pro-Nazi sympathies and anti-Semitic speeches. In his autobiography, In Search of Identity, Sadat candidly admitted that he was inspired by Hitler's Germany. Like his friend Nasser, Sadat was recruited by the mufti to engage in espionage activity on behalf of the Third Reich. During World War II, Sadat had worked for the mufti as a spy for Nazi Germany in British-occupied Egypt. He later served a term in prison for his role in these pro-German activities. Sadat's attitude did not change after World War II. In 1953, while serving as a close associate and political confidant of al-Husseini, Sadat published a letter in the Egyptian weekly Al-Mussawar, addressed posthumously to Hitler, in which he expressed sorrow over the defeat of the Third Reich and hailed Hitler as the "immortal leader of Germany." (Icon of Evil - Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam by David G. Dalin and John F. Rothmann; Random House, New York, 2008. pp 35, 36, 37, 38, 87)

Should Egypt, therefore, again make war with little Israel one day, after all the wars, bloodshed and duplicity against Israel Egypt has already been responsible for, God's judgment and response will be swift and devastating.

That Egypt is specifically singled out in this serious way in the prophetic Scriptures proves this very point!

Look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. (Isaiah 36:6)

"Egypt shall be a desolation,
And Edom a desolate wilderness,
Because of violence against the people of Judah,
For they have shed innocent blood in their land.
But Judah shall abide forever,
And Jerusalem from generation to generation.
For I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted;
For the LORD dwells in Zion." (Joel 3:19-21)

In that day Egypt will be like women, and will be afraid and fear because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which He waves over it. And the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt; everyone who makes mention of it will be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts which He has determined against it. (Isaiah 19: 16,17)

This is not to say that God's Word ignores the other nations which have - in the past and up to this very day - caused so much suffering to the Jewish nation, like Edom (Saudi Arabia) mentioned here, and Syria as well as others. But the very nation of Egypt, which has been trumpeted as a moderate and champion of peace, God shows to be not all that trustworthy.

It is my prayer that Israel's leaders may heed these words.

In exchange for: All the loss of Sinai with its strategic depth - crucial in the event of renewed war with Egypt, - the loss of Israel's oil fields, the self-destruction of Israeli settlements - a very bad precedent - and the loss of so much more - Israel got a temporary peace that can be broken, as Anwar Sadat clearly foresaw, at any time that may suit Egypt's Islamic Arab strategic interests.

There is an additional reason why Egypt - and this without any Israelis realizing it - has become a snare: Egypt's insistence on a 100 percent withdrawal from Sinai and the dismantling of Israel's outposts - Yamit etc. The consequence: a judenrein solution and a 100 percent withdrawal for any peace efforts can and will now be the norm and demand of Arab states. For why should Syria (which in any case aspires to become Greater Syria, inclusive of all of Lebanon and "Palestine,") wish to settle for anything less than "moderate" and "peacemaking" Egypt, as she is touted as being by Israel and the world?

I still remember how Israel was pressured by Egypt to give back the last meters of sand near Taba; and how on re-entering this last piece of "their" Sinai the Egyptians were shouting: "Today Taba, tomorrow Jerusalem!" There was not even a hint of any thankfulness or willingness to co-exist with the Jewish State of Israel.

God has seen this also, and though His people in their fervent and sometimes blind pursuit of peace have been willing to swallow all these sufferings, setbacks and humiliations, not so God. He indeed has registered all these injustices in His books, and His answer will come as surely as He has said it will.

Therefore, if Anwar Al Sadat, an open and fervent admirer of Adolf Hitler, an early student and activist in Egypt's fanatical Muslim Brotherhood, and a student of the German military genius Carl von Clausewitz - could become the inspiring hope for peace to the majority in Israel, then to the Israeli elite and leadership, any deception is possible.

Arafat, a pathological liar - as even Ariel Sharon called him - an arch-murderer and terrorist, taught in his young years by the evil, totally pro-Nazi Icon, Jerusalem Mufti Amin al-Husseini, became also a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace (as had Sadat,) all because of the arrogant - "we know better" - and often gullible Israeli leaders' blind pursuit of peace.

Two intifadas, numerous terrorist attacks in his name, and all the broken promises for a true peace - all this caused a slight doubt to enter at least some Israelis regarding their self-touted peace partner Arafat, but NOT for long!

After Arafat's death, the world and Israel quickly ran after a new hope for 'peace.' Abu Mazen, the one who stood at Arafat's side during all his murderous exploits, was co-initiator of the massacre of Israeli Olympic Athletes in Munich and is an ardent Holocaust-denier: he is now Israel's and the world's hope for peace, even as he is kept in the unsure saddle of his Palestinian leadership by the Israeli government and army, while he remains totally beholden to all the anti-Israel ISLAMIC feelings of most of his Muslim surroundings.

If Sadat was murdered by these same evil forces, so will Abu Mazen be, even if, under pressure of the West and Israel's blind leadership, he would get "his Palestinian state" from Israel.

He, already old, may either go the way of Sadat or die a natural death, and more radical Hamas-like persons will thankfully receive the just-created Palestinian state for the purpose for which is has always been intended: as a base and springboard towards Israel's final destruction. As even Yitzhak Rabin once remarked: "A Palestinian state will be built on the ruins of the State of Israel."

But Israel's willingness to travel this road of deception under constant pressure of the world, though much wounded and still shaken, is more or less intact. Not only do they see the totally untrustworthy Abu Mazen still as a hope for peace, ridiculous as this may seem, but Bashar el-Assad the fervent supporter of all terrorist actions against Israel - be it via Iran's Hezbollah or Khaled Mashaal's Hamas - is still being thought of by some absolutely foolish people as the man that can be pushed or cajoled into a certain peace deal with Israel. As for a starter - and this every Israeli should know by now - receiving all of the Golan must be a given before Assad is even willing to talk to the Israelis.

So here we go - after Anwar Sadat comes Arafat, after Arafat, Abu Mazen, and after Abu Mazen, Assad of Syria. Every one of them of course wants all of "their" lost territory, so that then the now nearly totally Islamized world will gladly finish off what is then left of Israel!

Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Director
INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN ZIONIST CENTER

Is this Israel's calm before the storm?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/is-this-israels-calm-before-the-storm/article1458211/

It's been a year since the election that brought Benjamin Netanyahu to power in Israel and, for most Israelis, it's been the best year in recent memory. There has been almost no violence or breaches of security, and the country's economy weathered the world recession remarkably well. Israelis, for the most part, feel safe and secure, and the Prime Minister's rating in public opinion surveys reflects that satisfaction: Mr. Netanyahu is retaining his hold on his centre-right supporters and is gaining support among voters in the centre and on the left. The only drop he has suffered is among voters of the far right who reject his temporary freeze on construction in some Israeli settlements on the West Bank.

Now, it seems, 2010 is supposed to be even calmer. The country's annual intelligence assessment released this week spoke of “low probability of war” and little likelihood of serious clashes.

But as veteran Israeli observers will tell you, when you hear such rosy forecasts, it's time to head for the shelters.

“Experience in the Middle East shows that calm can turn into tension, and tension can turn into war, in an instant,” wrote Aluf Benn in yesterday's Haaretz newspaper. (Article Below)

A flare-up in sabre-rattling with Syria is the exception that proved the rule. Syrian officials warned that, if there were a war, Israeli cities would become targets, and that drew a bellicose response from Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who said that, in that event, the Assad regime would be toppled.

Mr. Netanyahu moved swiftly to calm the waters and return matters to their previous quiet. Israelis were left scratching their heads about where all the rhetoric had come from.

It came, in fact, from an apparent misinterpretation by Damascus of remarks made earlier this week by Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister and the current Defence Minister. Mr. Barak had told an audience that, if peace with Syria is not achieved, Israel could face an unnecessary war that would leave issues between the countries exactly where they are now.

It was intended as a cautionary note to Israelis not to be complacent, but it so surprised the regime of Bashar al-Assad that they took it for a threat. Perhaps it's one of the consequences of not having a channel of communications between the two countries' leaders.

Mr. Barak's warning has fallen on deaf ears in Israel, where most people can't imagine a peace that would entail giving back to Syria the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.

“Why would we want do that?” people ask. “There's no chance of war with Syria, and the Golan has become part of Israel. It's a great place to visit during Passover.”

Mr. Barak is not alone in warning of the danger of complacency.

Jordan's King Abdullah and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also have cautioned Israel about being too smug.

“Israel should give some thought to what it would be like to lose a friend like Turkey in the future,” Mr. Erdogan said this week.

It was Ankara that provided the good offices through which Israeli and Syrian officials conducted negotiations aimed at a peace agreement more than a year ago.

But the once-valued ally – Turkey and Israel even carried out joint military exercises – has been snubbed by the Netanyahu administration for having criticized Israel's assault on Gaza early last year.

As for the Palestinians, with whom Mr. Netanyahu has yet to enter into peace talks, Mr. Barak also warned: “A deadlock will lead to another round of violence that will serve Hamas.”

Up to now, there has been little public pressure on Mr. Netanyahu to change things.

Most Israelis never encounter Palestinians, though most Israelis live within a few kilometres of them. Few Palestinians can enter Israel, including east Jerusalem, and almost no prudent Israelis ever journey into the Palestinian territories. Israelis are more likely to visit Rangoon than Ramallah.

Most of the Israelis who do come into contact with Palestinians are settlers, and that contact usually is through their car windows, as they whisk past Palestinians on the sides of the roads that carry Israelis to their settlements in the West Bank.

It is true that life is better these days for many Palestinians, as the Netanyahu government has removed many internal checkpoints and the Palestinian economy has blossomed.

But the comforts that have arrived in the West Bank's major cities have yet to trickle down to the hundreds of Palestinian villages and smaller towns.

As well, the dream of statehood remains elusive, and the Palestinian Authority has a president whose term expired more than a year ago. The elected Palestinian Legislative Council has been suspended for almost three years.

President Mahmoud Abbas stands firm in his refusal to negotiate with Israelis until they cease construction in all settlements, including those in east Jerusalem. This position wins him a measure of respect, but the settlements continue to expand, and the rival Hamas organization grows stronger.

Rather than trying to find a solution in peace talks, the Palestinian Authority harasses Hamas officials and keeps some 600 Hamas members in jail. The result of such heavy-handedness is to distance many of the people from their rulers and to generate more support for Hamas.

Few Israelis, however, feel the need to press Mr. Netanyahu into ending this situation by agreeing to Mr. Abbas's demand for a real halt to settlement construction.

To most Israelis, security is measured in whether they feel safe taking the bus or sitting in a popular café, both of which had been targets of suicide bombers in the past. By such measures, Israelis feel very safe. The last suicide bombing was five years ago and, for every warning from a King Abdullah or a Recep Tayyip Erdogan, there's a Silvio Berlusconi or a Mike Huckabee to reassure Israelis they're doing everything right.

Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad has taken his case to the enemy's camp, speaking this week at the annual Herzliya Conference, at which Israeli leaders regularly attend. He told his audience that, if Palestinians didn't achieve statehood through negotiations, they would opt for a unilateral declaration of independence. His biggest task, he said, is constructing the infrastructure for such a day.

Mr. Fayyad is dead serious, and the prospect of a unilateral declaration and a campaign to win world support for the Palestinian state should jar Israelis out of their complacence. But the fact that he spoke in such a gathering of elite Israelis suggests he is more friend than enemy, so why worry?

President Barack Obama's recent admission of failure to get Israeli-Palestinian peace talks started, meanwhile, has left the Netanyahu government gloating and the Israeli peace camp marginalized.

History, however, suggests this smugness could be the calm before the storm. In 1973, recalls Gideon Rafael, a former director general of foreign affairs, Israelis were brimming with confidence from their victory in the 1967 war and didn't see the coming of the Yom Kippur War that would almost defeat them.

Similarly, in the wake of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty and the successful routing of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon in 1982, Israel was blind to the advent of the Palestinian intifada in 1987 and the potency that campaign would have.

And in the late 1990s, Israel was basking in the glow of the Oslo peace process and was blind to the second, more violent intifada on the horizon.

Israelis aren't likely to heed Ehud Barak's warnings right now; they have been conditioned to reject criticism. And who can blame them? For 62 years, their little country has been mostly isolated and often at war. They don't want to hear bad news just when things seem quiet.

But it's got so that even great supporters of Israel can't criticize it with impunity.

This week, a right-wing movement, Im Tirtzu, has launched a campaign against the New Israel Fund, a 30-year-old organization that supports various human-rights groups in Israel. It blasts the NIF for assisting Richard Goldstone, the South African judge whose report on the Gaza campaign raised questions about possible war crimes and crimes against humanity, and for supporting the idea of an independent inquiry into the Gaza assault.

On Thursday, NIF president Naomi Chazan was told by The Jerusalem Post that it was dropping her weekly column.

One more critical voice is quieted, and the rest of the country goes back to planning its Passover vacation.

----------

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1145985.html

Fri., February 05, 2010 Shvat 21, 5770

World isn't buying Israel's explanations anymore
By Aluf Benn

"Your situation isn't good," said a high-ranking European diplomat recently. "No one believes Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and we don't want any connection with [Foreign Minister Avigdor] Lieberman. Only a dramatic and surprising diplomatic move, like [former prime minister] Ariel Sharon's disengagement, will change the impression."

A few hours later, Time magazine published an interview with U.S. President Barack Obama, in which he expressed disappointment with Israel's unwillingness to make "bold gestures" toward the Palestinians.

In a speech at a conference not long ago, an Israeli diplomat serving in a European capital touted Israel's hoary PR line, distinguishing between "the only democracy in the Middle East" and its autocratic Arab neighbors.

"We share common values," the Israeli told the Europeans. To his surprise, a member of the audience stood up and replied to him: "What common values? We have nothing in common with you."

In diplomatic conversations, Europeans are critical of Israel because of the Gaza blockade, the construction in the Jewish settlements, the home demolitions in East Jerusalem, the pervasive loathing of the right-wing government and even the social gaps and the way Israel is moving away from the European welfare-state model.

The Netanyahu-Lieberman government is nearly always described as "hard-line" in the foreign media. This is not entirely fair: The government of Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni went to war in Lebanon and Gaza and built thousands of apartments for Jews in East Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement blocs - many more than did Netanyahu, who has refrained from employing military force and has declared a 10-month freeze on settlement construction. But they liked the Kadima government because Olmert and Livni made the right noises about their desire for peace and a final status agreement, whereas they don't believe Netanyahu when he talks about "two states for two peoples." The fact that Olmert and Livni achieved nothing in the negotiations makes no difference. It's the intentions that count.

Netanyahu and his aides have answers to the accusations against Israel. The blame for the Gaza blockade lies squarely with the Palestinians, who chose Hamas to reign over them and kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. "You are worrying about the humanitarian rights of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza. You should be worrying about one Israeli who is being held there," Netanyahu's people tell UN representatives.

In East Jerusalem, the government is hiding behind Mayor Nir Barkat and the planning and construction institutions, which are approving building plans for Jews and home demolitions for Palestinians. And for the diplomatic stagnation, it is blaming Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is refusing to renew the talks.

There is one little problem: The world isn't buying Israel's explanations and it isn't prepared to condemn Palestinian obduracy. Obama has split the blame for the stagnation between the two sides and has also taken some of it upon himself ("We raised expectations").

American envoy George Mitchell's appeal to the members of the Quartet that they urge Abbas to return to talks, has gone unanswered. This week he completed another frustrating visit to the region, with zero results.

Obama's approach - to "park" the diplomatic process for lack of achievements and to concentrate on domestic issues - has not surprised Netanyahu. Three months ago, a senior Israeli official said the Obama administration would probably put off the Israeli-Palestinian problem to his second term, explaining: "Now they're weak, they have unemployment and the economic crisis, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, and they aren't emerging from that. They don't have the strength to complete an agreement. In the meantime, the maintenance will continue."

U.S. officials are hoping talks will be renewed within six months. The main thing is that there be some negotiations. They have no expectations of more than that.

Disturbing scenario

The Palestinian Authority is conducting a campaign to isolate Israel, based on the Goldstone report and the hatred for the Netanyahu government. Political scientists Shaul Mishal and Doron Mazza are calling it "the white intifada," which is aimed at enlisting international support for a unilateral declaration of independence in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. In a document they distributed last week, they warn of Israeli complaisance and present a disturbing scenario: The Palestinians declare independence, and Israel refuses to recognize it and is faced with a boycott. Regardless of whether it yields or reacts with force, Israel cannot win, and will also lose control of the process. Therefore the two scholars recommend a preemptive diplomatic move.

Diplomatic isolation can be costly. Former Foreign Ministry director general Gideon Rafael wrote in his memoirs that in the summer of 1973, he felt that the diplomatic stagnation, which was perceived as something taken for granted, and perhaps even desirable, was liable to become "a death trap."

Former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat cut Israel off from its friends in the Third World, proposed a peace initiative to the Americans and was rejected. He then raised the demand for the return of the Sinai Peninsula in the UN Security Council and came up against an American veto.

In his book, "Destination Peace: Three decades of Israeli Foreign Policy, a Personal Memoir" (published in English by Littlehampton Book Services, 1981), Rafael wrote that Israel rejoiced in the veto and did not realize that closing the diplomatic door left Egypt with only one option - war.

In the coming weeks Israel apparently will request an American veto in the Security Council again, in order to bury the Goldstone report. Netanyahu is planning a fourth meeting with Obama, concerning the nuclear security conference in Washington on April 12 and perhaps even before then. The agenda will center on Iran - or "the new Amalek," as Netanyahu called it in Auschwitz on Wednesday. The question is whether alongside his demand that Obama take action against Iran, Netanyahu will also tell him that in exchange, Israel will take some sort of initiative vis-a-vis the Palestinians. This would be in an attempt to persuade the world to believe him and ameliorate Israel's increasing diplomatic isolation. .

Palestine is to Israel as Oz is to Kansas

Test Your Palestine IQ

Daniel Pinner (Israelnationalnews.com)

Answer the questions but don't check them until you are finished.
Check your score at the end.

1. As is well known, Palestine is the Holy Land for Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam. Palestine's sanctity in Islam is expressed
in the fact that the Koran mentions Palestine:

a) 1,034 times;

b) 837 times;

c) 408 times;

d) 1 time;

e) never. 2. Jerusalem is the third holiest city for Islam (after Mecca and
Medina). In honour of this status, the Koran refers to Jerusalem as:

a) Al-Kuds ("The Holy");

b) Al-Medina al-Kuds ("The Holy City");

c) Urusalim ("Jerusalem");

d) Al-Kibla al-Awalani ("The First Direction ");

e) By no name, because Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Koran.

3. The Dome of the Rock, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, is one of
Islam's holiest shrines. In accordance with this sanctity, Moslems
pray on the Temple Mount:

a) facing the Dome of the Rock;

b) in the north-west section, to face the Dome and Mecca
simultaneously;

c) standing facing the Dome of the Rock, kneeling facing Mecca;

d) facing the Dome of the Rock for certain prayers, Mecca for others;

e) kneeling facing Mecca, their backsides towards the Dome of the
Rock.

4. The Jewish claim to the Holy Land is that God promised it to them.
Moses - the Jewish national leader - is quoted as saying: "O my
people! Remember the bounty of God upon you.and gave you that which
had not been given to anyone before you amongst the nations. O my
people! Enter the Holy Land which God has decreed for you". This
speech of Moses is recorded in:

a) the Book of Exodus;

b) the Book of Isaiah;

c) the Talmud;

d) the Midrash;

e) the Koran (Sura 5:20-21).

5. In popular literature, historical discussions, political debates,
and other forums, the Palestinians' standard claim is that they are:

a) the descendants of the Biblical Philistines (a European tribe
originating in Crete, who invaded the Holy Land in the early Biblical
period);

b) the continuation of the Biblical Canaanites (a Hamatic tribe, in
perpetual warfare against the Philistines);

c) the descendents of the earliest Christians (i.e. Jews);

d) an integral part of the Arab nation (a Semitic nation originating
in Arabia, and entirely unconnected to the Philistines, the
Canaanites, and the Jews);

e) all of the above.

6. In the period of history that Palestine was an independent
country, its capital city was:

a) Jerusalem;

b) Jaffa;

c) Haifa;

d) Ramallah;

e) meaningless, because there was never in history an independent
country called Palestine, so it never had a capital city.

7. The earliest mention of a place called Palestine in history is:

a) in the Hebrew Bible, in the Book of Genesis, when God commanded
Abraham to go to Palestine;

b) in the Hebrew Bible, in the Book of Joshua, when the Israelites
conquered Palestine;

c) in a stone plaque dating from about 600 BCE, commemorating the
Babylonian conquest of Palestine;

d) in the New Testament;

e) in the year 135 CE, after the European Roman invaders defeated the
Jewish revolt in Judea, and re-named the province Palestine.

8. "There is no such country ! 'Palestine' is a
term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible.
'Palestine' is alien to us."

Who said these words?

a) Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel, in a speech to the American
Zionist Organisation, 1972;

b) Moshe Dayan, Minister of Defence of Israel and former Chief of
Staff of the Israel Defence Forces, addressing the General Staff,
1968;

c) Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, in his election
victory speech, 1996;

d) Abba Eban, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, in a speech
in 1981;

e) Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, a local Arab leader, addressing the British
Peel Commission, 1937.

9. "The 'Palestinian People' does not exist. The creation of a
Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against
the State of Israel."

Who said this?

a) Egyptian dictator, President Gamal Abdul Nasser, addressing the
Egyptian parliament, a month after the Six Day War, July 1967;

b) Jordanian King Hussein, a week before the Six Day War, May 1967;

c) Syrian dictator, President Hafez al-Assad, addressing the Arab
League, 1994;

d) Iraqi dictator President Saddam Hussein, addressing the Iraqi
nation in a televised speech, 2002;

e) Zahir Muhsein, executive member of the PLO, in an interview with
the Dutch newspaper Trouw, March 1977.

10. On the eve of Israel's independence in May 1948, approximately
600,000 Arabs lived in the areas that would soon become the State of
Israel. When the War of Independence was over (March 1949), 150,000
Arabs were still there. This is why the UNRWA (United Nations Relief
Works Agency) officially recognized that the number of Arab refugees
was:

a) 450,000;

b) 600,000;

c) 850,000;

d) 1,000,000;

e) 1,300,000.

11. In June 1982, the Israel Defence Forces entered south Lebanon to
fight against the PLO, which had invaded Lebanon in 1975. The total
population in southern Lebanon was about 400,000, of whom vast numbers
- perhaps as many as 10% - fled northwards to escape the fighting.
UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) officially estimated
the number of refugees as:

a) 40,000;

b) 80,000;

c) 120,000;

d) 250,000;

e) 600,000.

12. The Palestine National Covenant (the constitution of the PLO)
states that "Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the
British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit" (Article 2).
77% of this "indivisible territorial unit" is today:

a) the State of Israel, and the remaining 23% is Judea and Samaria
(the "West Bank") and Gaza;

b) Israel (including Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, i.e. the "occupied
territories"), and the remaining 23% are the border areas of various
neighbouring Arab states;

c) Judea, Samaria, and Gaza (the "occupied territories"), and the
remaining 23% is divided between Israel and Jordan;

d) Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and the remaining 23% has been annexed
to the State of Israel;

e) The Kingdom of Jordan, and the remaining 23% is Israel (including
Judea, Samaria, and Gaza).

13. As its name suggests, the raison d'etre of the PLO (Palestine
Liberation Organisation) is to liberate Palestine. Accordingly, the
PLO has fought to establish its independent state in:

a) the whole of Israel, starting with Judea, Samaria, and Gaza (the
"occupied territories");

b) sovereign Israel alone, rejecting any claim to Judea, Samaria, and
Gaza (prior to the Six Day War);

c) Jordan (in the late 1960s and early 1970s)

d) Lebanon (from the mid-1970s until 1982);

e) All of the above.

14. The PLO's purpose, as they and their supporters make clear, is
to liberate the "occupied territories" which Israel captured in
the Six Day War (5th-10th June 1967). This claim is proven by the
historical fact that the PLO was founded:

a) in Ramallah, the biggest city in the West Bank, a month after the
Six Day War;

b) in Gaza City, which has traditionally been a centre of Palestinian
nationalism, on the first anniversary of the Six Day War;

c) as a response to the establishment of the first Israeli settlement
in Hebron in 1969;

d) on the 10th anniversary of the Six Day War, in June 1977, in
Hebron;

e) 3½ years before the Six Day War, on 1st January 1964, in Cairo
(the capital of Egypt).

15. In the 25-year period 1950-1974, the Arab countries (including
Iran) donated a total of $26,476,750 in aid to Palestinian refugees,
representing 0.04% (i.e. $1 out of every $2,500) of their combined oil
revenue for 1974 alone. The only country in the entire Middle East
which gave no aid at all to Palestinian refugees was:

a) Israel;

b) Iran;

c) Libya;

d) Jordan;

e) Algeria.

16. Israel has often been accused of "ethnic cleansing" of the
Arabs in the "occupied territories". The demography bears this
out, because the Arab population of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza has:

a) plummeted from 6,500,000 in 1967 to 3,000,000 in 2009;

b) plummeted from an estimated 5,000,000 in 1967 to less than
2,000,000 in 2009;

c) remained steady at 3,000,000, despite huge natural growth in the
rest of the world;

d) increased at one tenth of the pace of natural population growth;

e) increased from about 750,000 in 1967 to an estimated 3,700,000 in
2009, a population growth of nearly 500% in barely more than a
generation, which is one of the highest rates of increase anywhere in
the world.

17. Israel has also been accused of "ethnic cleansing" of Arabs
who are citizens of the state, and deliberately enforcing policies
designed to keep the Arab population small. This, too, is shown by the
demography, in that the Israeli Arab population has:

a) dropped from slightly over 1,000,000 (40% of the overall
population) in 1948 to 750,000 (20% of the population) in 2009;

b) remained at a steady 1,000,000 from 1948 to 2009, while the
overall population has increased seven-fold;

c) increased from 500,000 in 1948 to 1,000,000 in 2009, representing
a drop from 35% of the overall population to just 12% in 58 years;

d) decreased steadily by 2% per year from 1948 onwards;

e) increased from 150,000 (15% of the overall population) in 1948 to
about 1,420,000 (22% of the overall population) in 2009.

18. As of 2009, there are five universities (the Islamic University
of Hebron; Bir Zeit University; Bethlehem University; Al-Najah
University in Shechem ; and Al-Ahzar in Gaza), and five
religious higher education academies, throughout the "occupied
territories". These institutes are:

a) all that remain of 25 institutes of higher education, the others
having been destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces;

b) some of the oldest in the Arab world, with the Islamic University
of Hebron having been founded under the original Caliphate in the 8th
century;

c) forced to operate secretly, because the Israeli authorities have
banned them;

d) barely tolerated by the Israeli authorities;

e) all founded since the Israeli "occupation" of 1967, under
Israeli auspices, the oldest one being the Islamic University of
Hebron, founded in 1971.

19. Since the Israeli "occupation" of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza in
1967, nine Palestinians have been sentenced to death by the courts and
judicially executed, and scores - probably hundreds - more have
been executed in extra-judicial killings. All of them, without
exception, were executed:

a) by the Israeli military occupation authorities;

b) by the Israeli Army after military courts-martial;

c) by the Israeli civil administration, following criminal trials in
civilian courts;

d) by Israeli civilian courts, acting under special emergency
regulations;

e) since September 1993 by the Palestinian Authority in the
autonomous zones, because Israel, alone in the Middle East, does not
use the death penalty.

20. In early October 2005, an estimated 650 people charged the
security fence/separation barrier, and an estimated 350 succeeded in
crossing it. Security forces responded with bayonets, shotguns, and
rubber bullets, killing between ten and fifteen people and injuring
dozens more. This incident was given minimal media attention, and has
been entirely forgotten, because:

a) the world media is biased in Israel's favour;

b) a dozen Palestinians killed is so commonplace, it is not even
newsworthy;

c) the Israeli authorities imposed a media blackout;

d) Jewish settlers intimidated the journalists and photographers into
silence;

e) the incident occurred along the security fence in Morocco,
separating sovereign Morocco from the Spanish Sahara, and the security
forces in question were Spanish.

Scoring

Every a) is worth 1 point; every b) is worth 2 points; every c) is
worth 3 points; every d) is worth 4 points; every e) is worth 5
points.

Now add up your score. If your score is 20, then you answered a) to
every question. This means that you got every single answer wrong, and
that you are politically correct and base your ideas of the Middle
East on standard anti-Israel and pro-Arab propaganda lies rather than
on the truth. Since you are more concerned with Israel-bashing than
truth, and since you parrot every canard peddled by pro-Arab
propagandists, you are ideally suited to become a European career
diplomat accredited to the Middle East, or a BBC or CNN reporter, or a
journalist for Haaretz.

If your score is between 21 and 99, then you might have a more open
mind than others, and you might know slightly more than the average
media report contains. You might be interested in studying more on the
subject.

If your score is 100, then you answered e) to every question. This
means that you got every answer right. This suggests that you have a
good, solid knowledge of the issues involved and are uninfluenced by
propaganda. Be careful: people infected by independent and honest
thought tend to become targets of Islamic terrorists and their
left-wing cohorts. At the very least, they get demonized as
"right-wing fanatics".

If your score is below 20 or above 100, this means that you cannot
count properly. Why not consider a career as the Secretary General of
the United Nations?

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/SendMail.aspx?print=print&type=1&item=9250

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/SendMail.aspx?print=print&type=1&item=9249

Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors (CJHS)

A Freeze of Jewish Construction in Judea and Samaria

Leslie Sacks

Obama and the Europeans demand a freeze on Jewish construction in the West Bank, in Judea and Samaria. Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) and the Arab League require such a freeze to even consider further negotiations with Israel.
By all means, let’s support a freeze - a comprehensive, simultaneous freeze on all sides. Let us freeze the settlements but also freeze the Arab world’s (including the Palestinian Authority’s) continued rejection of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state within - at a minimum - the 1967 borders.

Freeze the settlements (located on less than 5% of the West Bank) – Yes! But let's also freeze:
- The hate education in the schools, universities and mosques of Palestine;
- The anti-Semitic propaganda so rife amongst the Muslim world’s media;
- The suicide bombings, and the sanctification of (and even pensions for!) the bombers;
- The continuing rocketry from Gaza into Israel's southern civilian areas;
- The gun smuggling in Gaza, Hamas’ attempts to kidnap more Israelis, and its murder of suspected Palestinian collaborators;
- The expulsions and discrimination against Christians and other minorities in the West Bank and Gaza;
- The continuing disenfranchisement of and economic discrimination against Palestinian refugees by their Arab “brothers” in the countries surrounding Israel;
- The buildup of more than 40,000 rockets in Hezbollah-controlled Southern Lebanon;
- The charters of the PLO, Hamas and Hezbollah, all of which advocate the destruction of Israel and the decimation of its Jewish population.

We could keep freezing many injustices, many absurdities that contribute to the current state of war, to the oppression of much of the populations on all sides. A great idea: let's support a partnership of moderates rather than obstructionists, appeasers and unilateralists. But let's put all in the same pot - let's freeze settlement construction for as long as all parties to peace negotiations do the same and freeze their multitudinous intransigencies.

The day they stop, the day their freeze fails the acid test, the quid-pro-quo - that is the day Israel starts building again.

What could be more balanced and fair? What could be more logical and pragmatic? Realism at its purest. No preconditions - just total transparency. Let all parties put their money where their mouths are.

Let's see who signs on. Let's see who in fact wants real progress, which sides have any sincere interest in peace.

Published on Family Security Matters

Reserve Generals Sign Petition Supporting Struggle Against NIF

Gil Ronen Generals Against New Israel Fund

Senior reserve officers signed a petition Wednesday supporting Im Tirtzu's struggle against the organizations supported by the New Israel Fund that besmirched the IDF



"We deplore the false claim by 16 Israeli NGOs that the IDF carried out war crimes during operation Cast Lead,” the petition's text said. In fact, it said the IDF “was making superhuman efforts to avoid hurting innocent civilians. We therefore call upon the entire public to support us and strengthen the IDF and its commanders. The signatories include the former Head of the National Security Council, Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland; former Head of Southern Command, Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog; former Head of Ground Forces Command, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yiftach Ron-Tal; former Head of the National Security Council and Deputy Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan; former Head of Personnel Branch Maj. Gen. (res.) Elazar Stern; former Military Secretary to the Minister of Defense, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yakov Amidror, former Navy Commander, Maj. Gen. (res.) Micha Ram, former Head Artillery Officer and President of Industrialists' Federation Brig.-Gen. (res.) Oded Tira.

They added their signatures to that of Im Tirtzu's chairman and founder, Ronen Shoval, as did former UN Ambassador Dr. Dore Gold; former diplomat Yoram Etinger; former Chief of Police, Lt. Gen. (res.) Assaf Chefetz and others.

Meanwhile, artists and writers signed a petition in which they expressed their “disgust with the campaign of incitement” against the New Israel Fund.

The signatories include author A. B. Yehoshua, playwrights Yehoshua Sobol and Edna Mazia, sculptor Danny Caravan, as well as actors, journalists and academics.

Transformation of Ruins- A Gush Katif Wedding

thewilderway.info



The pinnacle of the wedding celebration comes not at the end of the party, rather at the beginning
Those of you who’ve been reading my postings over the years might remember my strong bonds to Gush Katif, and particularly to Kfar Darom. Every once in a while, for one reason or another, I find myself flipping through photos of that I took, prior to its destruction. It is very difficult to view the pictures; my guts begin churning and sometimes it’s even worse. The displacement of so many people, the abandonment of our land, and the catastrophic consequences, culminating in 8,000 rockets fired into Israel, the Gaza War, and of course, the present challenges of Goldstone were so totally unnecessary. All of these results were predicted, time and time again, before the expulsion, but were totally ignored by Sharon and Co. It is still beyond comprehension. Our best friends at that time at Kfar Darom, then like family (and today with an actual family connection), was the Sudri family. We met Noam and Tali Sudri about 12 years ago, when our oldest daughter Bat-Tzion fulfilled her year of Sherut Leumi, National Service, at Kfar Darom, as a volunteer, working at the Agricultural Institute and also with the children in the community. The Sudris became Bat-Tzion’s adopted family, and they became very close. We too met them and their children, and began spending summer vacations in that “Garden of Eden,” and also Shabbat weekends with the Sudris.


A few years later they introduced another one of our daughters, also doing her volunteer service at Kfar Darom, to Tali’s younger cousin. Not too long after meeting they became engaged and married, making us ‘one of the family.’


Amost five years ago I spent Kfar Darom’s last Shabbat with Noam and Tali, their family, and everyone else who showed up. It was a Shabbat, just like any other Shabbat, but really it wasn’t. We all dined together, sang Shabbat songs, spoke Torah; but during Shabbat morning worship, prayers not normally recited on Shabbat were said; no they weren’t said, they were heart-wrenching pleas to G-d to somehow prevent the annihilation. On Shabbat a person is not permitted to mourn, yet I don’t believe there was a dry eye in the packed synagogue. Kfar Darom’s Rabbi, Avraham Schrieber, (now dean of the Yeshiva High School where my son studies, in Ashdod) spoke, saying ‘none of us know where we’ll be next Shabbat…’. Yet his voice did not quiver, rather it was filled with conviction and faith.


The next Shabbat Kfar Darom’s refugees filled a hotel in Beer Sheva.


Of course we’ve remained in contact with Noam and Tali and their family over the years. Since the expulsion they’ve lived in a temporary Kfar Darom, in a large apartment building in Ashkelon. Not quite the house they lived in, but at least it’s a roof over their heads. They’ve only been waiting almost five years for commencement of construction of their new ‘permanent homes’ in Nir Akiva, in southern Israel. Despite a multitude of promises, the deal still hasn’t been finalized. So they are forced to spend the ‘reparations’ received following the expulsion on rent in Ashkelon.


Their oldest daughter Tamar was the subject of at least one article I wrote following the expulsion. I also have an interesting photo of her, dressed all in orange. Last year, Tamar was a tour guide for Midreshet Hevron in Kiryat Arba, carrying out her year of national service.




And now I have another photo of Tamar, dressed all in white. Last night she married a wonderful man named Oneg, who studies Torah in Kiryat Gat.






The wedding was a particularly emotional event. Of course all weddings are. But this one even more so. Firstly due to the bond we have with the family of the Kalah, the bride. But on another level, also. Much of Kfar Darom’s residents were present, many of whom I hadn’t seen in quite some time. Knowing that they are still suffering because of the inconceivable stupidity of the Israeli government and the continuing turtle-speed saga of resettlement is extremely distressing.


The pinnacle of the wedding celebration comes not at the end of the party, rather at the beginning. Under the chupa, the wedding canopy, the chatan, the groom, places the ring on his new wife’s finger and then the Sheva Brachot, the seven blessings traditionally recited, accompanied by joyous singing by those present, almost completes the ceremony. But Jewish smachot, festivities, do no not end there. At each and every wedding the chatan repeats the age-old verse: If I forget thee O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, let my tongue cleave to my palate, If I do not remember you, If I do not place Jerusalem above my highest joy. (Psalms 137:5-7) The chatan, in symbolic remembrance of the destruction of the Temple, then breaks a glass, stomping his leg down on it.


It is also customary to place ashes removed from Temple Mount, remnants from the ruins of the Beit HaMikdash, on the Chatan’s forehead. Last night the officiating Rabbi put ashes on Oneg’s forehead from the ruins of Jerusalem, and also remains from the ruins of Kfar Darom in Gush Katif.


Despite the elation of the wedding ceremony, the poignancy of the moment was heartbreaking. At most chupas the only emotion expressed is bliss. Last night, as those vestiges from Kfar Darom were placed under Oneg’s kippah, and the audience recited, together with the Chatan – ‘Im Eshkachech Yerushalayim’ – ‘If I forget thee O Jerusalem,’ I believe that even the Kallah was silently weeping. It was hard not to.


But then, with the breaking of the glass, and the resounding Mazal Tov echoing through the hall, happiness prevailed. The singing and dancing erased those few melancholy moments.



Tamar and Oneg will undoubtedly continue the tradition of building a “new house in Israel.” It is said that he who brings joy to a Chatan and Kallah is as if he were adding one stone to the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Last night, all those present, and most especially, the Chatan and Kallah, did not only begin the renewal of Jerusalem; they also commenced on a journey which will, with G-d’s help, lead them back to Gush Katif, to Kfar Darom and to the transformation of the ruins left in the sand to a beautiful, thriving, community, atoning for the horrid transgression committed by Israel almost five years ago.


Mazal Tov!


With blessings from Hebron,
David Wilder

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Your Federation Dollars Hard at Work: American Jews fund anti-Israel organizations

Samuel Sokol and David Bedein
WND - http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=101992

A U.S. organization has been receiving money from perhaps unsuspecting Jewish donors to support blatantly anti-Israel groups.

American Jews wishing to donate money to Israeli causes routinely utilize local city Jewish federations as a middleman. Hundreds of millions of dollars per year are sent to Jewish federations across the country with the expectation contributions will be used to aid worthy causes in Israel. Many U.S. Jewish federations as well as individual Jewish donors give to the New Israel Fund, or NIF, a Washington, D.C.-based foundation dedicated to fostering social change and progressive causes in Israel.

The NIF budget comes from a combination of donors. These include the Ford Foundation, grant organizations such as the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation and the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, as well as various Jewish communal federations such as the Jewish Federation in New York, the Durham-Chapel Hill Federation and the Jewish Federation of Grand Rapids.

However, while many of the programs run by the NIF are considered laudable in the pro-Israel community, such as work the group does with economically disadvantaged Ethiopian immigrants, the flagship grantees of the NIF are Israeli-Arab nongovernmental organizations that openly and unabashedly dedicate themselves to removing the Jewish character of the state of Israel.

The NIF disperses hundreds of thousands of dollars for the core budgets of such groups as Adalah: The Legal Center for Minority Arab Rights in Israel, Mossawa: The advocacy center for Arab citizens in Israel and I'lam media center for Arab "Palestinians" in Israel.

Supporting Iran's nukes

I'lam was founded in the wake of the Palestinian intifada, or terrorist war, initiated in September 2000 after then-PLO Leader Yasser Arafat turned down an Israeli offer of a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem.

The first director of I'lam was Hanin Zoabi, recently elected as a member of the Israeli Arab Balad Party in the Knesset. Zoabi's party spawned Azmi Bishara, the Israeli Arab Knesset member who fled Israel after he was threatened with prosecution for allegedly aiding the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Balad officials routinely condemn Israel and at times openly present themselves as representing the state of "Palestine."

In April, in Zoabi's maiden interview to the Jerusalem Post as a Knesset member, she declared her open support for Iranian nuclear weapons as a counterbalance to Israel.

Zoabi, in her capacity as the director of I'lam, helped draft and sign the Haifa Declaration, which called for the negation of Israel's Jewish identity and for a "comprehensive change in Israeli policy, whereby Israel abandons its destructive role towards the peoples of the region. …"

In March, I'lam's so-called empowerment coordinator, Zaher Boulos, issued a "cry of solidarity with the Palestinian people who hold strong to the establishment of a Palestinian state that is independent with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of the refugees to their homes" at the annual conference of the Forum of Journalists, an I'lam affiliate of which he is also coordinator.

The conference expressed "support for the Palestinian people in their struggle for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of refugees."

Also in March, I'lam issued a press release stating Israel cannot "liquidate the fact that Jerusalem is the capital of Arab culture and will be the future capital of a Palestinian state, and tomorrow will be the focal point of the Arab and Islamic world and the progressive forces in the world."

The terminology in I'lam's media publications resounds with terms such as "massacre" and "ethnic cleansing," as well as accusations of war crimes and the targeted murder of journalists.

Last year, the NIF-funded organization held a conference in Ramallah with journalists from the Palestinian Authority which "aimed to develop and facilitate working relationships between Palestinians journalists in Israel and in the West Bank, and to discuss the role of the Palestinian media on both sides of the Green Line" as well as "exploring strategies for Palestinian media practitioners in addressing Israeli, European and U.S.-American media."

I'lam's official statements are representative of the rhetoric employed by some of the NIF's grantees.

I'lam posted on its website a statement declaring, "The (Israeli) soldiers are the grandchildren of the Nazis' victims, the Nazis' survivors. They have come here to consume food quickly and consume life quickly. This is the true image of Israel."

The statement was made in the context of accusing Israeli soldiers of a "massacre" against Palestinian civilians.

The connection of I'lam to the PA is reflected by its current staff.

Sanaa Hammoud, the current director of I'lam, was a senior official of the PA's Negotiations Support Unit in Ramallah and served in Jerusalem as a senior communications adviser for the Palestinian leadership.

Wadea Awawdy, who served on the founding board of directors of I'lam, worked as a correspondent for the official PA publication Al-Ayyam, which routinely prints anti-Israel propaganda.

I'lam's international relations coordinator, Nasser Victor Rego, has issued numerous statements of support for Hamas, terming the Islamist group "The Palestinian resistance," while providing a link on his blog to the website of Hamas' armed wing, the Essedeen Al-Qassam Brigades.

Nasser also has called on the international community to boycott Israel.

Rego would not return calls to comment on the issue.

In addition to receiving funds from the NIF, I'lam is also a grantee of Al-Quds: Capital of Arab Culture, which works under the auspices of both the PA and the Arab League.

Among other charges laid against Israel in materials distributed by I'lam are allegations that the Hebrew media contains, "Encouragement for killing and destruction."

Other anti-Israel groups

Also supported by the NIF is Adalah, which defines itself as a non-partisan human rights organization. However, its agenda differs significantly from its self-definition.

Jerusalem-based researcher Arlene Kushner, in her study of Adalah published by the Center for Near East Policy Research entitled "Inside Adalah," finds that "in various venues – including the Durban U.N. conference on racism – Adalah has charged or participating in charging Israel with grave breeches of international humanitarian law, war crimes, willful killing, racism, apartheid [and] ethnic cleansing."

Adalah takes the position that the Israeli government is a "junta which proves each day that it is the most fascist and racist in history."

In 2007, Adalah proposed a constitution for Israel in which immigration of Jews would be banned except for "humanitarian reasons." With its demand for the right of return for so-called Palestinian refugees, Adalah sees Israel's future as one with an Arab majority, which would create another predominantly Arab-Muslim state.

Another group funded by the NIF is Mossawa. Last month, Mossawa and fellow NIF grantee Coalition of Women for Peace wrote to the Norwegian government and asked "the Norwegian people to join us in our efforts and to stop investing in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory."

Naomi Paiss, director of communications for the NIF, declined to comment for this report.

--

Prof. Aumann: Freeze is Immoral and Stupid

Malkah Fleisher, Yoni Kempinski
A7 News

(IsraelNN.com) Professor Robert J. "Yisrael" Aumann, the Israeli who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2005 for his work on conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis, thinks Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is not working game-theory to Israel's advantage. Professor Aumann is an Orthodox Jew who immigrated to Israel from the United States in 1956.Speaking to INN TV's Yoni Kempinski about Prime Minister Netanyahu's 10-month building freeze in Judea and Samaria, Professor Aumann said "I think it's a very, very bad idea."

Professor Aumann went on to say he does not believe anyone – Jew or Arab – should be expelled from his home. He also said he is not opposed to making certain concessions to the Arabs if concessions are also given by them to Israel.


However, he felt strongly that the building freeze is not an instance of appropriate diplomacy. "It's not only immoral, it's stupid!" Aumann said. "It's stupid… because it says to the Arabs, 'you can continue to be intransigent and we will make one gesture, one capitulation after another.' We're giving the wrong signal."

"Just as Chamberlain gave the wrong signal to Hitler in Munich and Chamberlain brought about the Second World War – not Hitler, but Chamberlain brought about the Second World War, made it possible by his capitulation to Hitler in Munich – by sending a signal of weakness, we are encouraging intransigence and in fact, war, on the part of the Arabs. It's simply stupid," Aumann said.

He strongly chastised Israel for making unilateral moves in 2005 which were harmful to Jews and were not met with simultaneous moves towards peace from the Arabs. He called the Disengagement from the Jewish cities of Gush Katif in Gaza "immoral" and "criminal", and accused the Supreme Court of hypocrisy in allowing the program to take place, when it would "never have allowed, and rightly so, to expel even a few Arab famlies from their homes."

Let's play 'what if'

Karni Eldad
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1147480.html

Assume for a moment that you are a Palestinian parent. Assume (really, let your imagination run free) that you are a Palestinian parent who wants peace. You would presumably want to educate your children in the same spirit. So how difficult is it, if it is even possible, for parents who live in the Palestinian Authority today to educate toward nonviolence, tolerance, recognition of the State of Israel and peace? Sports are generally considered a good thing - a challenging, healthy activity. And that is certainly true of sports tournaments for children. A PA soccer tournament could be both fun and educational - if it were not named for the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi. She is the one who perpetrated the bloody attack on Israel's coastal highway in 1978, which killed 37 Jews.

According to Palestinian Media Watch, a celebration was held on Palestinian television to mark this terrorist's 50th birthday, sponsored by PA President Mahmoud Abbas himself. The event included a party at which a youth orchestra played in Mughrabi's honor. For the last two years, the PA has also run a summer camp named after this "martyr" (no, not Hamas, the PA - the good guys). Abbas funded a computer center named after her, and recently, a square in Ramallah was named for her as well, with Abbas' full backing. How heartwarming.
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The PA and its leader, Abbas, are for some reason considered partners in the dream of peace between us and them. But peace, if it is to be true and lasting, must be based on the desire and trust of both sides.

For some time now, the PA, and even this newspaper, have been claiming that the Palestinian Authority does not incite against Israel. That is partly true. What you find on television, in textbooks, on posters and in public statements is not incitement; incitement is something superficial, something easily pushed aside by the next bit of incitement to come along. What is happening in the PA is systematic education, brainwashing that poisons the minds of its children - or rather "your children," as the U.S. secretary of state once said in commenting on the issue.

If two PA schools are named after the arch-murderer Mughrabi, what will be implanted down the road in the subconscious of the children who attend them? That murdering Jews is a good thing, which brings you honor. If Palestinian television describes Palestine as extending "from Gaza and Ashkelon in the south to Haifa and, further north, Acre," if children are told that Tiberias is an important Palestinian city and Lake Kinneret a Palestinian water source, if Jaffa is called "Palestine's gateway to the world," what will your children understand from this? That there is no Israel. It doesn't exist.

In quiz shows on PA television and crossword puzzles in PA newspapers, children know the right answers to questions such as "Which is Palestine's most important port - Acre, Jaffa or Haifa?" Other questions include: "Name three states that border Palestine" (the correct answer is Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan) and "What is the area of the state of Palestine?" The correct answer to that one is 27,000 square kilometers - a territory that encompasses the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, including the entire State of Israel. It is clear from the questions, of course, that the state of Palestine already exists. And so on and so forth.

Your efforts to educate your children toward tolerance and acceptance of the neighboring Jewish entity are doomed to failure from the start.

It is your word against the brainwashing inculcated by the schools, the television programs, the crosswords, the teachers, the textbooks, the songs. So what can you do? And how?

PM: Peace talks could resume in weeks

HERB KEINON
04/02/2010 01:59

Seven years after then-prime minister Ariel Sharon unveiled his Gaza disengagement plan at the Herzliya Conference, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took the same podium Wednesday evening and delivered what he said was a call for the engagement of the country with Jewish heritage, Zionism and history. “Here in the land of our fathers, which is also the land of our children and grandchildren, in order to determine our fate we need to strengthen our collective efforts in three primary spheres: security, economy and education,” Netanyahu said.

But before turning to those matters, especially education and linking the youth to Israel’s history, he addressed diplomatic matters, perhaps feeling an obligation to do so because that is generally the subject discussed by prime ministers at the final session of the Herzliya Conference.

“I have reason to hope, realistically, that in the next few weeks we will renew the peace process with the Palestinians, without preconditions,” Netanyahu said. “I have been saying now for a long time that among the international community there is recognition that Israel wants and is prepared to renew the diplomatic process. And once this recognition emerged among the central players in the international community, the practical preparations for this step are also ripening.”

In an apparent reference to “proximity talks,” the idea broached recently by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell whereby talks would begin with him shuttling between the two sides, Netanyahu said that while the customary phrase is “it takes two to tango,” in the Middle East, “sometimes it takes three to tango, or at least to begin to dance. Afterward we will be able to engage in a couple’s dance.”

Netanyahu said that if the Palestinians demonstrated the will not only to build up the Palestinian economy and institutions, but also “peace itself, then we will see the beginning of the process in the coming weeks.”

One senior diplomatic source, however, said it was unlikely that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would renew negotiations until after the next Arab League summit, scheduled for the end of March in Libya. The hope is that this summit would give him the green light to return to talks.

Netanyahu, speaking at the concluding session of the four-day conference, said that Israel would need to continue strengthening the IDF.

“The weak do not survive in the difficult geographic region in which we find ourselves,” he said. “And peace is not made with the weak. I want to make clear that our security needs will increase over the next decade, and in my mind over the next two decades.”

Netanyahu said that Israel’s defense needs required it to have a strong, growing economy. But, he said as a segue to the main part of his address, a strong army and economy were not enough to ensure the country’s existence; it also needed a commitment from the people to be here, and an understanding of why they are here.

And this, he said, depended on education.

The educational basis so important for the country’s strength and existence, he said, was not only math, English and reading comprehension, but also the strengthening and deepening of “all of our connection to each other and this place.”

“I think that this type of education begins with the Book of Books, it begins with the Bible,” he said, adding that “this is a subject close to my heart these days.”

On Tuesday his youngest son, Avner, won the Jerusalem Regional Bible Quiz for state schools, and will now go on to participate in the National Bible Quiz at the end of the month.

Netanyahu said that the education so critical for the existence of the state starts with the Bible and runs through all of Jewish history up to the Zionist present.

“A nation must know its past to ensure its future,” he said, then adding a quotation from Yigal Alon that a nation that does not know its past will find that neither its present nor future are secure.

“The guarantee for our existence is dependent first and foremost on the knowledge and national consciousness that parents and the educational system impart to our children,” he said.

During an address which prime ministers have used in the past to discuss high policy, Netanyahu quite simply called on the youth, and the nation, to go out, walk the land and discover the country.

He said that in less than a month his government would launch an initiative to restore and preserve historic landmarks, as well as develop two new trails alongside the popular Israel National Hiking Trail (Shvil Yisrael).

One of these new trails will concentrate on historic archeological landmarks, and another will focus on places of historic interest to the “Israeli experience,” – a trail he called a “living Eretz Yisrael museum.”

Preempting questions about why he chose to talk about these matters at the Herzliya Conference, Netanyahu said – to applause – that “sometimes small steps lead to big things.”

"We worked until we collapsed"

Daniel Ben-Tal


A doctor with the Israeli delegation tells ISRAEL21c what it was like to try to save as many lives as possible in Haiti, after the devastating earthquake. An unexpected call up: Dr. Ian Miskin, an infectious disease specialist, joined the Israeli delegation to Haiti in the wake of the earthquake.

Dr. Ian Miskin, one of Israel's foremost infectious disease specialists, admits it will take time for him to fully internalize his experiences in post-earthquake Haiti. For two weeks he was totally immersed in aiding rescue missions and treating survivors rescued from the rubble.There were some uplifting experiences, he says, such as when he helped to treat a child who had been rescued after being trapped under debris for a full week, but he also witnessed many deaths. It was like nothing he had seen before.

"It was an unexpected call-up," the 53-year-old British-born doctor, who has lived in Israel since age 14, tells ISRAEL21c "A colleague in infectious diseases asked if I wanted to go. I called my wife [who is a pediatrician] and she said yes, so I went. Within two hours I was on the list. We met at five o'clock that evening at Tel Hashomer Hospital for a briefing, then I went home to prepare and early the following morning turned up with two weeks' worth of clothes. We all had [immunization] shots, heard a lecture about the situation and were briefed about the operation."

Miskin, who spends about a month each year in uniform as an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) doctor in the reserves, knew only two members of the delegation beforehand. "We were introduced to each other then got to work. Eighty percent were soldiers serving in the standing army. I was one of about a dozen reservists. Somehow, within 24 hours all the equipment was loaded on a jumbo for the long flight. By the time we arrived at the airport, we were really tired."

The 200-strong team used the 16-hour flight on an El Al plane to recharge its batteries. "The first-class section was set aside for sleeping. We originally planned to fly to Santa Domingo - only two hours out we learned that we could land in Port-au-Prince."

Working till they dropped

On arrival, they rapidly set up camp in a soccer field not far from the airport. "We had no food, and made a kabalat Shabbat [Jewish ritual for welcoming the Sabbath with bread and wine] with two pitas and a glass of grape juice. We went to sleep at seven then were woken at midnight to unload the jumbo, which had just arrived. By 10:30 the following morning the first patient arrived - there was no time for an opening ceremony. From that point on, we worked non-stop, at full capacity."

According to Miskin, on a professional level, the team learned much from the experience. "We made plans in advance - some worked out, some didn't. To set up a field hospital was the correct decision. It was the only one in Haiti for five days. We also had a pretty sophisticated patient identification system - each patient was photographed on arrival and had an electronic record of his treatment that went with him."

Miskin has nothing but praise for his colleagues. "They wouldn't set a time when they would finish their shifts - they just worked until they collapsed. We had 40 doctors, 20 nurses and 20 medics and paramedics with us. People were doing things that weren't their job - when the eye doctor finished treating his patients he manned the gate. Everyone helped each other. People were looking out for each other all the time, seeing who needs help."

There is still much work for international aid missions to do in Haiti, Miskin says, adding that there is a growing problem of infections among survivors, which often lead to endemics and widespread diarrhea.

"There are still a huge number of maimed people out there - everything was infected. People who were severely crushed often died because their kidneys packed in - there was nothing we could do. Those who had wounds on their torsos died."

Who decides who lives or dies

"On the last day we were working, the Monday, we saw 150 patients. We closed at 4pm, but then, after the last patient had already been admitted, a little girl came up. She was given a local anesthetic and we operated on her."

The medical staff found itself confronted with issues of medical ethics. "Obviously, we had a problem that we couldn't treat everyone, and someone had to make life-and-death decisions. Because we thought it was important, we set up ad-hoc, three-doctor ethics committees. Nobody else foresaw the problem - it was something we found we had to do. It's something that only Israelis would think of - doing it together."

The mission worked in less-than-ideal conditions. "The scary part was the first days - we had almost nothing to eat, no shower, no way to sleep properly. We slept in pup tents, but it was so hot and humid, so damp. Everything you left outside was soaked... our electricians set up satellite telephone lines to Israel so that we could call home, but because of the work load, we often didn't have five free minutes to call home."

He notes the importance that was attached to maintaining the team's health - both physical and psychological, so that its members would have the strength to give their all. "We had a psychiatrist and psychologist with us - we all needed that help. There was a huge amount of stress - and remember, many of the group were 20-year-olds. We just worked until we dropped. I've never seen anything like it. There was a huge amount of pressure on every member of staff."

The team's commanders insisted that their charges take time off. "Three hours in the shade on the beach - everyone went there once. There was even a list to make sure that everyone went. Rest is important. Also, everyone went out into the city at least once to see what was going on.

Israelis first on the scene

"It was very hard work. In time, we were joined by a Colombian surgery theater, working side-by-side. They also worked their asses off. The Colombians were terrific. They brought us drugs and equipment we'd run short of, such as a blood analyzer. A group of Canadian nurses also helped, and there were some Haitians who spoke Creole. I used my basic French to communicate with patients. The American civilian hospital also took a little of the load off us," says Miskin.

The Israeli response to the crisis received a tremendous amount of praise, which some commentators described as "disproportionate." Miskin responds drily: "The advantage of the Israeli delegation was that we got there first. Haiti is the poorest country in the western world. All the buildings collapsed, and there was rubble everywhere. That's what you're starting from.

"The operation was so well organized because it's the army, which can muster people within hours. Every morning at seven we held a morning parade. There were 30 majors, 10 lieutenant colonels and three full colonels in the team - but that didn't matter."
http://www.israel21c.org/people/qwe-worked-until-we-collapsedq