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Letter from USA/Canada
We are getting some really great letters and articles from USA/Canadian sources
concerning Israel today, we thought you would be interested.
(If you would like your comment to go in here please send an e-mail )
mailto: halkin@sympat
Submitted by Roy Alkin
This is worth taking 5 minutes to read
Dear Friends and Family,
In April 2001 I sent out a letter detailing my experiences working
as a street medic at the protests in Quebec City. Today I am
sending a similar letter to you, however it is in regard to a
radically different situation.
This morning my friends and I set out to Concordia University, in the
heart of downtown Montreal, to hear Benjamin Netanyahu (former Prime
Minister of Israel) speak. Many articles were featured in the Montreal
papers leading up to today's speech, warning of protest action. I had a
good idea of what we would face as we approached Concordia, but I could
never have predicted what actually happened once we were there.
To enter the building we had to make a giant circle around it, to get
to the supposedly "safe" entrance. We had to walk right through a
volatile protest of hundreds of Palestinians and their supporters in
keffiyehs, with flags, screaming vitriolic hate. Once having run this
gauntlet, we waited patiently outside the Bishop street entrance, held
back at the gate by security and police. After about an hour they
started admitting us inside, but it was too late because a huge group
of Palestinian 'demonstrators' had appeared in our midst. I was
fortunately right at the entrance, and as dozens of violent protesters
pushed their way to the front, I tried to get through. Right next to me
appeared the ringleader, who tried to push his way in. The cop in front
of me punched him in the face while pulling me through the gate at the
same time. I rested against the wall and watched as at least a hundred
(I think) red-and-green coloured protesters attacked the barriers and
tried to get in. Riot cops appeared, dozens of them, and went to the
gate as I and a few others were herded into the building. There was
yelling and chanting, drumming and fighting going on outside the doors,
with hundreds of our people stuck behind the gate being abused by
hundreds of violent demonstrators. A few of us were waiting after
the metal detectors for our friends to come through, when all of a
sudden we heard loud chanting and yelling INSIDE the building. The
riot cops came storming in and up the stairs beside us, and we began
hearing fighting, crashing, yelling, punching. Chaos broke out and
riot cops made us run for the door to the auditorium - I thought we
were going to get killed, I swear. It was the scariest feeling,
because I knew that these people wanted to hurt me and anyone who
supports Israel or is Jewish.
Once inside the auditorium, we were told to be patient as more people
would drift in from the insanity outside. We waited inside for three
hours, as the commotion outside grew increasingly loud. We could hear
chanting and yelling, and the protesters began trashing the university
building. The police tear gassed and pepper sprayed the entire building
and outside, and we began to feel the effects if we stood too near the
doors. After hours of waiting, and bomb searches by RCMP sniffer dogs,
we were informed that Bibi Netanyahu could not speak after all - too
much danger to him and to us. This was an incredible disappointment and
we were naturally upset. We however managed to maintain a kind of
composure and instead of fighting, the 650 of us inside began to sing
Hatikvah, the national anthem of the State of Israel. We sang peace
chants and then just waited to be let out, in groups of 10, escorted by
police.
The scene as we exited was disgusting. Benches were overturned, papers
and garbage streaked across the hallways, and broken windows. We were
shoved outside directly into a HUGE Palestinian riot, where some of our
people were apparently attacked. The cops did nothing. We stood on one
side of the barrier, while they stood on the other, and we faced off.
On our side, we sang and danced and celebrated being free and Jewish.
On their side, they threw bottles at people's heads, screamed hatred,
and tried to break the barriers down to hurt us. They started tossing
pennies and coins at us - one of the oldest ways to taunt Jews by
saying we're all 'money-grubbing'. While we sang Hatikvah arm in arm,
they spat at us. Finally we decided to disperse and leave them to their
hatred.
Today was a sick and sorrowful day not only for the Jewish students and
community of Montreal, but for Jews everywhere, the city of Montreal
and Canada. Today a man was gagged and not allowed to express an
opinion; today hundreds of people were denied the opportunity to listen
to him speak. Today a riot broke forth on our peaceful streets, and
today no police managed to restrain hate. Today Montreal Jews were made
to feel afraid for our lives, and today Jewish students were threatened
in our own home. If we cannot express ourselves here in Canada,
champion of free speech and human rights, where on earth can we do so?
If we cannot feel safe in our own cities where we have grown up and
thrived, where are we to go?
I can answer my own question with what many of us already know - Israel
is our place. She is our homeland, and opens her arms to us, willing to
protect us at all costs. The Jewish people need Israel, and she needs
us.
Even so, we must voice our distaste at the violence which occurred in
Montreal today. We must all take our own individual stands against this
fascism, by which freedom of speech was denied. What happened today in
my city cannot be condoned or allowed to repeat itself. We must act.
So I am sending you all this long letter, with my own personal feelings
and an eyewitness account. Please do what you can to see that this
message is spread to anyone you can think of - from friends to work
associates, to politicians, and from Jews to non-Jews alike. We have a
chance to fix these wrongs, but only if we take action and don't sit
back as passive observers. We say NEVER AGAIN, but unless we protest
these attacks on our freedoms, it is fruitless to put up that chant.
Last but certainly not least, a personal lament on our situation: today
I saw raw hatred, and it cut me to the core. I have never feared for my
life as I did today. I have never feared for our free society the way I
do today. I wish beyond anything that we can one day fix the agonizing
rifts between our peoples, and erase the hate from our and their hearts
alike.
Shanah Tovah to all Jewish readers of this letter, and a sweet year. To
all non-Jewish readers: thank you for reading, and please understand
what I am expressing here. It is most important for you to know what
really happened here today, and it is vital that you see this side of
the story.
Love always,
Sara Ahronheim
|
(Submitted by Dr.Al Mutchnik)
If you are following the events in the Middle East, then you might find this of
some interest. It is a copy of a letter sent by an Israeli citizen to Geraldo Rivera,
who is a war correspondent for Fox News Channel. Here is the author's introduction along with his letter.
Recently, the popular "Jewish" media star announced that his view of Palestinian
suffering has affected his Zionism and he is now a "Palestinian." My letter to him
follows.
To: Geraldo Rivera
Sir, I have no interest in you as a "celebrity", so please understand that this is
just a letter from one person to another. I am writing to you out of simple courtesy
to inform you of how you have embarrassed yourself as a human being and as a journalist.
A human being is obligated by Divine Order (You may call it morality) to do justice and a journalist to report the truth.
You have commented with great sincerity on the Israeli/Arab conflict, but your
understanding is based on the information you received from other members
of the media whose understanding is as shallow as yours.
Surely you know that in competing for fair reporting Israel is at a distinct
disadvantage. You can report anything you want about Israel even from Israel. You will be perfectly safe and welcome and your credentials will not be in
danger.
On the other hand, should you be critical of the Palestinian Arabs or any Arab
country for that matter you will have future problems in dealing with them.
Should you report something that is very damaging to Arafat or to anything the
Arabs consider important you will never be able to work in the PA area again and the future of your employer in that area will be in jeopardy.
Should you expose something vital to Arab interest your life will be in jeopardy.
Should you tell the truth about Islam they might issue a fatwa and perhaps even the lives of your dear ones will be in jeopardy. Ask Salmon Rushdie.
Do you remember the Arab lynching of two Israelis in Ramallah and how the mob butchered them after they were thrown out of the window? If you do not I
will understand it as it didn't get too much play in the media after the first two days.
If you did see the footage, you might know that what you saw was taken by an
Italian Journalist. He was the only one to release a tape of the incident.
If you saw the entire tape taken by the Italian, you would have seen glimpses of a
CNN and an ABC and other major media photographers.
The Italian can't come back to the PA areas, not just because his credentials have been revoked, but because he knows that they will kill him. In fact, if you check carefully you will find that he no longer works for his former employer and they can't tell you where to find him. I guess the other journalists were just smarter than he was (Not more honest though).
On the other hand, remember the little boy under his father's arm, cowering behind a barrel as he was shown caught between a crossfire. Of course you
remember that one.
It was shown over and over, ad nauseum. I will never forget it. It made some people like you say, "Today, I too am a Palestinian". You assumed that Israeli
soldiers shot him. Since you are not an overt anti-semite you probably assumed it
was inadvertent.
The truth is that there is very little chance that he could have been killed by
Israelis, but that isn't important is it? In fact when the German network ARD broke the story last week that independent experts concluded that there was a
far greater possibility that he was shot from the Arab side, the story got very
little play in American media. Of course, it is only a story when Israelis shoot
civilians.
You know what my first thought was when I saw the tape? "What was this guy doing with a child in such a situation?" It is obvious that this was not a spontaneous flare-up. The Israeli soldiers were in position and the Arabs had
notified the media so they were in position (I assume you know that in the PA areas Journalists don't just move around freely) before the shooting started. Why would he take his child into such a dangerous place? What do you know about these people you call Palestinians and relate to so well?
Have you lived with them or worked with them as I have? Did you ever wonder why they are the first significant group since the Nazis to glorify killing of Jews just because they are Jews? Perhaps you assumed it was the Jews fault for the
many years that the Jews have oppressed them. It would be easy for you in your
shallowness to reach that politically correct conclusion because you don't know that Arabs have been massacring Jews for hundreds of years, even before the 54 year old modern State and even in Arab countries where Jews were harmless minorities.
Surely you do not know that Arab Islam is a virulently racist religion. I understand that because you have never studied Islam, but why associate with something you know nothing about? I guess you know that the overt practice of
Christianity and Judaism is a crime in the "moderate" countries of Saudi Arabia and Jordan. You may even know that it is against the law for a non-Muslim to even enter the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Did you know that the crime of selling land to a Christian or a Jew in these
countries as well as the PA is punishable by death and it has in fact been
implemented many times in recent years? I bet you thought that the Nazis were
unique in the application of their racist Nuremberg laws. They may have been the best at implementation, but they got them from the Muslim Dhimmi laws. These laws of strict Islam were imposed in numerous Arab lands long before Hitler was born. They prohibit"Dhimmis" (infidels meaning Christians and Jews) from living outside of the cities, from practicing a profession and from appearing in court against a Muslim.
They also require that they wear definitive garb, e.g. a yellow armband. Surely
this sounds familiar even to one devoid of historical understanding.
This past Thursday afternoon a suicide bomber killed 3 people and maimed or injured 75 more, including children and infants. They were not in a shooting
field. They were where they were supposed to be, doing what they were supposed to be doing.
The bomb was prepared by professionals (the bomber wasn't) and loaded with
large nails and rat poison to maximize the damage.
The interesting thing about this is that one half hour before the bomb went off, a
tape of the bomber was shown on Palestinian TV. His tearful mother was shown thanking him for bringing such glory to their family. He looked proud and truly content. She, of course, failed to thank him for the $25,000(a veritable fortune in the PA area) that the families of all suicide bombers get through the auspices of the PA.
It isn't really PA money though. It is just funneled through the PA. The cash comes from the EuropeanUnion and other donors to the Palestinian cause, who like you, sympathize with the plight of the Palestinian families like this one.
While you are thinking about the European friends of the Palestinians(you remember them, many of them were very busy 60 years ago cooperating with the
effort to solve you know which problem), you should know that they also contribute to the good growth and development of these heroic bombers by providing the classrooms and texts that guide the young boy into the great hero (read, murderer of innocent women and children) that he might become.
Anti-Semitism in history books is not new, but I have seen math and reading books in Arabic that are full of Jew hatred, all paid for by UN and European
agencies.
I could tell you more, but I doubt that you are capable of, or interested in,
absorbing even this much about your newly adopted brethren. Therefore, I will leave you with the words of the late Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir:
"We can make peace with the Arabs only when they learn to love their children more than they hate us."
|
(submitted by Henry Jackson)
Bring Palestinian Killers Of Americans to Justice
By GARY BAUER and MORTON KLEIN
The terrorists who massacred five Americans in the bombing of Hebrew
University last month are being sheltered by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian
Authority < and the State Department is refusing to demand that the P.A.
surrender them to the United States for prosecution. In effect, the State
Department is declining to carry out American law and policy, under which
our government has since 1986 sought the extradition or handing over for
prosecution on these shores of terrorists who kill Americans overseas.
American victims of Palestinian terrorism are the only cases of overseas
terrorism against Americans in which the State Department refuses to make
any serious effort to capture the killers.
Thirty-six American citizens have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists
since the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993, and more than 100 have been
killed since the 1960s.
Many of the suspects have been publicly identified by the Israeli
government. They are being sheltered by the P.A., which regards them as
heroes. At least five of them have even been rewarded with jobs in the
P.A.'s police force.
Incredibly, our State Department has never demanded that Arafat expel these
killers of Americans from his police force. Nor has the administration asked
the P.A. to surrender these killers to the United States so that they can
face justice in an American court.
After years of protests and pressure, last year the State Department finally
offered rewards for information leading to the capture of these killers <
but it refuses to publicize the rewards in Palestinian newspapers or cities,
which is what it routinely does in other countries to capture fugitive
terrorists. The department's Web site does not even include the names and
photos of fugitive Palestinian killers of Americans < even though it
publicizes the names and photos of other terrorists who have killed
Americans overseas.
The State Department's record of discrimination on this issue demonstrates
that it is permitting its political agenda < its relations with the P.A. <
to interfere with the pursuit of these killers. It is wrong for political
considerations to determine whether or not to take steps to capture
Palestinian killers of Americans. Such decisions should be on the basis of
how best to deter terrorism and how to bring killers to justice.
This discrimination must come to an end. Palestinian killers of Americans
must be treated the same as all other terrorists who murder our citizens.
And the victims of such terrorism must receive the same consideration as all
other Americans victimized by terrorism. This issue must be taken out of the
hands of the State Department and put under the jurisdiction of the Justice
Department.
Congress has taken the first step in that direction. Republican Senator
Gordon Smith of Oregon and New Jersey Reps. Rob Andrews, a Democrat, and Jim
Saxton, a Republican, are the lead sponsors of a new bill, the Koby Mandell
Act, which would create a special office within the Justice Department to
gather evidence against Palestinian killers of Americans; arrange to bring
the terrorists to the United States for trial; initiate negotiations with
the Palestinian Authority for financial compensation for victims' families,
and maintain a liaison with the families to update them on efforts to
capture the killers.
Two decades ago Congress created a special Justice Department unit, the
Office of Special Investigations, to bring Nazi war criminals hiding in the
United States to justice. We now need a government office to bring
Palestinian killers of Americans to justice.
The Koby Mandell Act < named after the 13-year-old Maryland boy murdered by
Palestinian Arab terrorists last year < has been publicly endorsed by the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee. A McLaughlin poll has found that
67% of Americans think it is "important" for Palestinian killers of
Americans to be brought to trial in the United States.
President Bush said last year that the United States will pursue terrorists
"from place to place until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue
nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism." The Koby Mandell Act
creates the means to put those words into action.
Gary Bauer is president of American Values and former chief domestic policy
adviser in the Reagan administration. Morton Klein is national president of
the Zionist Organization of America.
|
Submitted by Anne Maurer
PREVENTIVE MEASURE
Some of you know the Muslims and their Jihad symapthizers have launched a StarBucks boycott campaign. Why? Due to their usual racist and aparthied tendencies, the Muslims don't like the fact that Starbucks has a Jewish CEO who is supportive of democracy. They do not like the fact he is supportive of Israel's right to exist either. They would like to bury 4000 year old facts, including the Bible, that prove Israel belongs to the Jewish people. We are to believe them because "they say so", but many events have proven that one must always assume the opposite to be the real truth instead.
They also want to expand on their usual policies of ethnically cleansing anything non-Muslim in the region. They want to continue on their expansionist and imperialist policies of grabbing land that does not belong to them. Israel is a case in point. Kashmir is another example because getting Pakistan was not enough for their obscene appetites. Chechnya is another example. Could NY, Texas, California, or Washington be the next zones we'll be reading about? We all suspect the answer.
Let's get back to Starbucks and Muslim coffee. Caribou coffee want to be the next Starbucks. In a world of capitalism, it sounds innocent enough. But digging deeper, rumours abounded it is owned by Muslims. Checked out to be true.
OK, Carbou is owned by Muslims but we are told by our gov't and even the FBI that moderate Muslims do exist. OK, we say, but how moderate are they? Are they the moderate AMC types who the FBI will be lunching with even though they have openly declared themselves to be supporters of Hamas and Hizbollah? Are they the moderate Muslims who were no where to be found in any demonstations supporting America's war on Terror? Maybe they forgot that if they supported our war on terror, no one would kill them, maybe they forgot they no longer lived in Saudi Arabia or the Occupied Jewish territories under Arafat's illegal occupation. But then we remembered they couldn't have forgotten because we saw and heard their shrill demonstrations in the streets of America calling for the U.S. to stop attacking the Taliban. Well, they didn't say it in those exact words, they were smart. Instead they said we should not prolong the "cycle of violence", that we should "pursue peace". Funny how we never heard these "moderate" Muslims telling that mantra to their homicide bombers who vaporized 3000 Americans or the fanatics who burn our flags daily in effigy. Nor have we heard them asking their imams and clerics to tone down and better yet, eliminate their hate rhetoric in the mosques. Moderate Muslims? No, Muslims with an agenda to undermine the U.S. by using our civil liberites.
But, let's get back to Starbucks and Caribou. Apparently, Carbou is 87% owned by the First Islamic Bank of Bahrein. If you want to be a member of the Caribou board, you must abide by the Islamic Sha'ariah - meaning no women's rights and of course the usual "kill the Jew, kill the American" mantra. We also know Bahrein hasn't exactly been a friend to Israel. In additon, they also support the Palestinian Muslim terrorists the same way Saudi Arabia supports them - financially. Let's remembr how these Palestinian Muslims danced on 9/11. Let's remember its the same Palestinian terrorists who killed U.S. diplomats in Sudan in 1973. Let's remembr it is the same Palestinian terrorists who massacred the 241 U.S. Marines in Beirut in the 1980's. This is who Caribou Coffee is giving their money to.
Moderate Muslims? Not on your life. We tried giving them the benefit of the doubt but we will not allow them to use our $$ to kill our families. It is bad enough they're allowed to freely operate on our soil with impunity like the other Jihad organizations in this country.
So, the next time you buy a Caribou coffee, you are helping finance an Islamic mass murderer to kill innocents. BOYCOTT CARIBOU = BOYCOTT TERROR. Now, let's go and have a drink at our favorite Starbucks. Spread the word: DEMOCRACY LOVES STARBUCKS !!!
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Submitted by Roy Alkin
John Loftus, a former federal prosecutor and author of several books,
including The Secret War Against the Jews (a documented incredible
must-read that they tried to ban in several countries and the US, by the
way), is currently president of the Florida Holocaust Museum. He has
instituted a lawsuit that he claims will expose the Saudi-funded
terrorist network in Florida and elsewhere. Loftus, by the way, is an
Irish-Catholic.
Loftus's press release about his lawsuit follows below. You not only
should read this, but you should pass it on. It's an incredible tale.
For Immediate Release
Lawsuit to expose federal cover-up of Saudi-funded terrorist net in
Florida
The following is a statement by John Loftus:
For 20 years, I have served without compensation as a lawyer for federal
whistleblowers within the US intelligence community. In the last year, I
have received highly classified information from several of my
confidential clients concerning a Saudi covert operation. The Saudi
relationship is so sensitive that, for more than a decade, federal
prosecutors and counter-terrorist agents have been ordered to shut down
their investigations for reasons of foreign policy.
I am filing a lawsuit in Hillsborough County Court to expose the manner
in which Florida charities were used as a money laundry for
tax-deductible terrorism. The complaint cites specific testimony,
including highly classified information which has never been released
before.
Simply put, the Saudi Government was laundering money through Florida
charities run by the University of South Florida - Tampa Professor Sami
Al Arian for the support of terrorist groups in the Middle East. Through
the Al Arian network and others, the Saudi Government secretly funded Al
Qaida, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The Saudi purpose was twofold: the destruction of the State of Israel and
the prevention of the formation of an independent Palestinian State.
Two particular terrorist groups, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad,
were specifically chosen and funded by the Saudis for their willingness
to undermine Arafat's Palestinian Authority. The secret Saudi goal was to
create such animosity between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that
it would wreck any chance for the creation of an independent Palestinian
State.
Their tactics specifically called for the intimidation or murder of those
Palestinians who were willing to work with Israel for peace. To put it
bluntly, the covert Saudi network in Florida funded the murders of fellow
Muslims for the crime of wanting to create the first democratic Arab
State.
Whatever harm the Israelis may have done, they did build an excellent
public education system, including several universities, for the benefit
of their Palestinian neighbors. That was the problem:
* While literacy in the Arab world is below 50%, in Israel it is 97%.
* Israel is the only place in the Middle East where an Arab woman can
vote.
* After 50 years, Israel has created the first Arab class exposed to
democracy, literacy and western values.
To the Saudis, a democratic Palestinian nation would be a cancer in the
Arab world, a destabilizing example of freedom that would threaten Arab
dictators everywhere. As King Fahd said, "Next to the Jews, we hate the
Palestinians the most." The harder the Israelis and Palestinians worked
for peace, the more money King Fahd poured into his murder for hire
program.
The Saudi Government has already begun its spin operations, claiming that
this terror network was a rogue operation financed by a radical Saudi
businessman without the support or knowledge of the Saudi Government.
The truth is that many of the Saudi princes, notably Prince Bandahar and
Prince Alwaheed, are good and loyal friends of America who want to lead
Saudi Arabia into the modern world. Unfortunately, they are now in the
minority in their own country. King Fahd is on his death bed, and his
nephew and heir apparent, Crown Prince Abdullah depends on the most
radical southern and eastern clans for his political base.
The southern faction is the center of popular support for Al Qaida and
the Taliban, because it is the home of the most extreme Muslim sect, the
Wahabbis. Ninety-nine percent of the Muslim world rejects the Wahabbi
religious tenets as utterly repugnant to the teachings and examples of
the Prophet as written down in the Hadith. Since most Wahabbis are
functionally illiterate, they cannot read about this conflict on their
own.
Typically, they memorize a few passages of the Koran taken out of
context, and never read the accompanying Hadith for explanation. For
example, the Wahabbis are taught by rote that Jews are subhuman who
should be killed as a religious duty. In contrast, the Hadith explains
that the prophet Mohammed honored Jews, married a Jewish wife, forbade
forced conversions of Jews, always bowed in respect when a Jewish funeral
passed, and promised that good and faithful Jews would go to Paradise
just as good Muslims and Christians would, and that the Jews would have
their Holy Place in the West (meaning Jerusalem) while Muslims would have
their Holy Place in the East (meaning Mecca).
Illiteracy is a weapon of oppression. The Saudis, and their Wahabbis, the
Taliban, have decreed that women cannot work or even sit in the front
seat of a car. In contrast, the Hadith records that the Prophet worked
for his wife, and that she drove her own caravans in international
commerce.
The Prophet forbade racism, the Wahabbis practice it, especially against
their non-Arab Shiite minority.
The Wahabbis (both in Saudi Arabia and the Taliban) discriminate
viciously against women. The Prophet, who lovingly raised three
daughters, insisted that women should have substantially equal rights in
contract, ownership and divorce.
The Muslim faith envisioned by the Prophet in the Koran and recorded by
his contemporaries in the Hadith is a religion that practices tolerance
towards all races and religions, stresses the extreme importance of
literacy and education, and elevates the status of women to unprecedented
levels in many societies. This is the gentle, peaceful Muslim faith
practiced everywhere in the world, except in Saudi Arabia and the Taliban
provinces of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Muslim scholars speak derisively about the primitive Wahabbi apostasy,
but rarely in public. The reason for this deafening silence is simple:
Most Mosques in the world are impoverished and depend upon Saudi
subsidies for their operation. In return, however, the Saudis have gained
a foothold for proselytizing and radicalizing the Muslim youth through
religious education in the form of militant Wahabbism. Children learn to
hate because they are being taught that way.
The Saudis dabbled with funding anti-Semitic hate groups as a means of
breaking down American support for Israel. After the fall of communism,
the Saudis took over funding the most militant terror organizations for
direct attacks against Jewish and Palestinian supporters of the peace
process. Year after year, members of the intelligence community warned
that a rising wave of terror was coming. [TEXT MISSING] something about
terrorism, he was told to stop because it would embarrass the Saudi
Government. John O'Neill quit his job as head of FBI counter-terrorism
for the same reason. Jonathan Pollard went to jail.
Federal agents in Tampa, who had known about the Saudi-Sami Al Arian
connection since 1990, were ordered to drop the investigation in 1995.
The Saudi influence-buying machine had effectively shut down any threat
of criminal prosecution. Those Americans, including a former President,
who lobbied for the Saudis have a lot to answer for. So do the Saudis.
With the explosive growth of Al Qaida and their Taliban allies, the
Saudis finally recognized that they had gone too far. As Osama Bin Laden
laughingly related on videotape, he was approached prior to the attack on
the twin Trade Towers by his relatives, who offered him $300,000,000 to
cancel the operation.
Apparently, the Bin Laden family really had not broken off all ties and
knew exactly what was coming. So, my clients say, did the Saudis.
Six months later, a much-chagrined Prince Abdullah belatedly announced
that the Saudis would release the names of the terrorists whom their
charities had unwittingly funded, but only in Somalia and Asia. The main
Saudi charities in Herndon, Virginia, and the Al Arian network in Florida
are still untouched.
My clients are betting that the American influence peddlers hired by the
Saudis will succeed once again in derailing a federal investigation. They
came to me for help in exposing the cover-up. That is why I am filing
this lawsuit. In the months to come, the American public may finally
begin to learn why the Saudi-Sami Al Arian terror networks went untouched
for so long. It wasn't an intelligence failure, it was a foreign policy
failure. The orders were not to embarrass the Saudi government. Year
after year, the cover-up orders came from the State Department and the
White House.
The CIA, the FBI, and the Justice Department just did what they were
told. No one intended the harsh consequences of letting the Saudis get
away with it again and again. Only after September 11, when the Treasury
Department found the financial transactions linking the Saudi charities
directly to Osama bin Laden, did American officials realize the extent of
their betrayal.
We are not alone in our grief and anger. Saudi money sabotaged every
Israeli initiative to make peace. The bewildered Palestinians may finally
realize that they have been stabbed in the back by an Arab brother.
The rules have changed after September 11, but the bottom line remains
the same: If we want to stop terrorism, we have to tell the Saudis to
stop funding it.
John Loftus
|
Submitted by Frank Baigel
Subject: The West Bank of the Jordan River
Date: Sunday, June 16, 2002 3:00 PM
When Menachem Begin paid his first visit to president Jimmy Carter as prime minister, Carter spent much of the time pressing Begin to "freeze the settlements." Begin's reply was simple: "You, Mr. President, have in the United States a number of places with names like Bethlehem, Shiloh, and Hebron, and you haven't the right to tell prospective residents in those places that they are forbidden to live there. Just like you, I have no such right in my country. Every Jew is entitled to settle wherever he pleases."
Nevertheless the Carter administration launched a veritable propaganda campaign to spread the "ruling" that Jewish settlement in the West Bank - that is, Judea and Samaria - and in the Gaza Strip were illegal (in addition to being an "obstacle to peace").
Most of the media willingly fell into line. Following opposition and protest from various quarters, the Carter administration recognized that if one talks of illegality one must provide chapter and verse. Thus the State Department came up with the Fourth Geneva Convention as proof.
But the Fourth Geneva Convention proves nothing of the sort. It proves the opposite. The Fourth Geneva Convention does not apply to Israel and its presence in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza district. The convention defines itself strictly in its second clause: "The present convention shall apply to cases of partial or total occupation of the territory of a High Contracting Party."
Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, which Israel occupied in 1967, were not territories of a High Contracting Party.
Judea and Samaria did not belong to Trans-Jordan nor did Gaza belong to Egypt. In the war of Pan-Arab aggression in 1948, Trans-Jordan had invaded Judea and Samaria, occupied them and, in blatant illegality, annexed them. It then celebrated the annexation by changing its name to Jordan.
Egypt had similarly annexed the Gaza district. The annexations of course gave Trans-Jordan and Egypt no rights of sovereignty. Israel's presence in the West Bank and Gaza is perfectly legal.
Indeed, the last sovereign of both areas was the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Defeated in World War I, it had relinquished sovereignty over vast areas including Palestine; Palestine was handed over to the British to govern as a trustee - a mandatory for the purpose of bringing about the "reconstitution of the Jewish National Home."
When Britain retired from the Mandate, Jewish historical rights which the Mandate had recognized were not canceled; and no new sovereign ever took over in Judea and Samaria or in Gaza.
The legal adviser of the State Department, called upon to defend the Carter claim that Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza was illegal, got over the difficulty by simply ignoring Article 2 of the convention. In his opinion he didn't even mention it. He loftily declared that "the principles of the convention appear applicable whether or not Jordan and Egypt possessed legitimate sovereign rights in respect of the territories." No less.
Further on in his statement, he markedly avoided mentioning that in 1967 it was once again the aggressors of 1948 who attacked Israel (then confined to the narrow armistice lines of 1949). He did mention the Six Day War of 1967, but how? He wrote: "During the June 1967 war, Israeli forces occupied Gaza, the Sinai peninsula, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights." That was all. Not a word about who started the war or about its flaunted gruesome purpose: the destruction of Israel.
THE CONTINUING smear on Israel on the part of the government was brought to an end by the successor administration of Ronald Reagan, who personally had strongly and repeatedly denounced it. His administration issued a declaration that Israeli settlements were not illegal (though they were regarded as "an obstacle to peace").
A prominent member of the administration, law professor Eugene Rostow - himself a former assistant secretary of state - subsequently wrote: "Israel has a stronger claim to the West Bank than any other nation or would-be nationÉ [and] the same legal right to settle the West Bank, the Gaza strip and east Jerusalem as it has to settle Haifa or west Jerusalem."
But the damage was done; and never did Israel launch a counter-campaign to lay bare the monstrous falsity of Arab historical claims, their grave annihilatory intent towards Israel, the skewed misleading interpretation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the effort to acquit the Arabs of their aggression. Never a serious reply to Arab fabrications point by point so as to combat the widespread ignorance among even our own people. Never an educational campaign to demonstrate the unique roots of our people in Eretz Yisrael.
The policies of government after government encouraged the Arabs to believe that we were weakening in the belief of the justice of our cause, and on the other hand played down the repeated declarations of Arab leaders, from Abdel Nasser to Yasser Arafat, that their objective was the demolition of Israel. Our leaders talked of compromise. The Arabs saw compromise as a station on the road to complete Israeli surrender - something which, but for the hardening of Arafat's heart, almost occurred last year.
But the change that has taken place in the international political climate since the US tragedy of September 11, which has helped people abroad to understand the unique nature of our place in the world, gives us a chance to meet squarely the bitter struggle ahead of us.
Moreover, a great majority of the people in Israel has been shocked into recognizing the Arabs' lethal purpose. The government however must realize that it is essential that the physical, the military struggle, be accompanied by a sane national policy of information - to tell our people, and the rest of the world, at every step of the way, the whys and the wherefores of our existence, our actions and our beliefs.
(c) Jerusalem Post
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Six days of war, 35 years of questions
Daniel Pipes National Post
The most overwhelming victory in the annals of warfare took place in June, 35 years ago, when Israeli forces defeated the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian armies in a mere six days.
And this June is marked by the publication of Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East (Oxford University Press) by Michael Oren, the finest book ever on this topic.
Oren, an Israeli scholar of American origins, tells his story in a spare, direct and gripping way, replete with punchy quotations. Six Days of War benefits from sources in six languages and is the first account to rely on recently opened state archives, which provide his account with the previously unknown inside story, including a number of scoops (such as the Arab plans for conquering Israel; or how Defence Minister Moshe Dayan's orders to seize the Golan Heights violated his terms of office). No wonder it is a U.S. bestseller even before its formal release.
Several questions endure about the 1967 war, and Oren provides helpful information for answering them. Here are three key ones.
- Why did the war take place?
The question arises because, like the First World War, no one planned for or wanted this war.
Oren's research offers insights into its thoroughly accidental quality. In November, 1966, for example, after the killing of three Israeli policemen at the hands of Jordan-based terrorists, the usually efficient U.S. ambassador to Israel waited a few days to transmit a message of condolence from Jordan's King Hussein to the Israeli prime minister. His delay prompted the Israelis to retaliate, and that retaliation in turn became a major episode in the escalation to war.
The role of accidents needs to be kept in mind these days, as the winds of war again blow in the Middle East; even the slightest misstep could cause a blow-up.
- How did the Israel Defence Forces win so overwhelmingly?
By meticulous practice and absolute realism, in contrast to the Arab militaries, which lived in a fantasy world. If the Israelis were all nerves on approaching war -- chief of staff Yitzhak Rabin suffered a breakdown -- the Arab leaders were supremely overconfident. A Syrian general predicted a victory over Israel in four days "at most." Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser showed no signs of concern, insisting that Israelis were incapable of mounting precisely the surprise air attack that they in fact pulled off. More broadly, one high Egyptian official said about his side's leadership that it believed "the destruction of Israel was a child's game that only required the hooking up of a few telephone lines at the commander's house and the writing of victory slogans."
(Washington, ironically, was more confident than Tel Aviv of an Israeli victory; two weeks before war broke out, Oren shows, the U.S. secretary of defence predicted that if Israel pre-empted, it would defeat its three enemies within the week -- precisely what happened.)
- How did the war affect Arab-Israeli diplomacy?
It fundamentally changed the terms.
Already in mid-May, weeks before hostilities started, the Middle East hand at the White House, Harold Saunders, suggested Israel should be allowed the time to trounce its enemies, seeing in this a way "of settling borders and, maybe even refugees." By the second day of warfare, President Lyndon B. Johnson had formulated the outline of the land-for-peace policy that 35 years later still drives U.S. diplomacy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel should return the land it conquered in 1967 in exchange for its recognition by the Arabs.
Americans expected the scale of Israel's military triumph to show the Arabs the futility of their hopes to destroy the Jewish state, an analysis that found immediate agreement among some Israelis (including Yitzhak Rabin, later the prime minister who initiated the Oslo negotiations, which was premised on precisely this assumption).
But, as recent events have so vividly proved, the land-for-peace premise was false. With just a few exceptions (such as Egypt's President Anwar as-Sadat), Israel's willingness to make this exchange precipitated violence against it, not acceptance, by the Arabs.
Oren shows how land-for-peace was based on American hopes, not Middle Eastern realities; his research points to this failed policy needing finally to be replaced by a more realistic approach.
As Oren's subtitle suggests, those six days of war had truly profound consequences.
Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum.
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Submitted by Joel Schuster.
From: "Manny Keshet"
Take a good look at this photo. It's from Maariv (May 9).
The caption reads: "IDF soldier provides water to one of the terrorists
captured on their way to carry out a bombing in Israel."
The facts: there were 5 of them. 2 were carrying explosive belts.
There was a further 17 kilograms of TNT in the trunk of their car.
In my opinion, it is deserving of a Pulitzer Prize.
It deserves a Pulitzer Prize because it captures the complete essence of
the behavior of IDF soldiers all throughout
Operation Defensive Shield.
Take a good hard look at this photo. And be proud!
This is the essence of the JEWISH NESHAMA!
One day, the rest of the world will understand.
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manny Keshet, M.A.Sc.,
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Submitted by Laurence Thomas a member of "Torah in the 21st Century"
 More From The Post-Standard (Syracuse)
Top Opinion
Has Jew-bashing become respectable after Sept. 11?
May 29, 2002
By Laurence Thomas
If it is wrong to hate Arabs - because after all, they are people too - then it ought to be wrong to hate Jews. They, too, are people. And if the separation of church and state means that neither the Bible of Christianity nor the Torah of Judaism can be taught, then it ought to mean that the Koran may not be taught, either. But this is not the world that I am experiencing.
Jew-bashing has become fashionable, or it is at least tolerated, as the events at San Francisco State University make clear. And educational institutions are tripping all over themselves to introduce students to the Koran.
In regards to Jew-bashing, people who can normally see wrongdoing in the patterns of raindrops have not lifted a single voice of criticism. Where is the voice of the mighty Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition? Or do Jews not count? Where is the voice of Cornel West, who considers everyone a brother? Or again, do Jews not count?
As regards the separation of church and state, the silence of the ACLU is absolutely deafening. It was just recently that the ACLU decried the display of the 10 Commandments in a public school in Ohio, because it would cause great distress to non-believers in the Judaic-Christian God. But I guess it is to hell with those who believe in the God of Moses or the God of Jesus.
In France, I am now told to be discreet as a Jew. Wearing a yarmulke in public has become an act of courage. The one thing that I simply did not expect after Sept. 11 is that the very same advice would perhaps be applicable in America.
Some of my Syracuse University colleagues expressed deep concern over Arab-bashing after the events of Sept. 11. Sharing that concern, I offered my home as a haven for Arabic students who felt uncomfortable. I have no regrets in having done so. I would do it again.
But now I have to ask: Where are the imams and the leaders of the Arabic community to speak out against Jew-bashing? Where is the moral outrage of the Arabic community in the face of this despicable behavior?
Regarding Israel and Palestine, Arabs and I may never see eye to eye. But that was not, should not, and will not, be an excuse for me to mistreat either my Arabic students or colleagues. And the Arabic community must return the moral compliment. Nothing is more despicable and worthy of condemnation than wallowing in the sea of victimization whilst paddling in the stream of indifference in the face of blatant wrongdoing.
On Sept. 11, I as a Jew had to answer a moral call: There would be no Arab-bashing in my classroom. None whatsoever. Today, I as a Jew tremble at the silence of those, be they Arabic or black or white or Latino or Asian, who have managed to convince themselves that at least for the time being, Jew-bashing is not nearly as bad as Jews make it out to be, or who think that their political commitments regarding the Middle East justify turning a deaf ear to such hatred.
Is this the politically correct way to behave? If so, then political correctness has become the handmaiden of nothing other than vomitous hypocrisy and vitriolic hatred. Laurence Thomas is professor of philosophy, political science and Judaic studies at Syracuse University; he divides his time between his homes in Syracuse and France.
© 2002 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.
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Muslim cleric says intifadah
is contrary to Islam
By JANICE ARNOLD
Staff Reporter
(Canadian Jewish News)
MONTREAL - There is no basis in Islam for anti-Zionism and the current intifadah is, in
fact, contrary to Islamic law, says an outspoken Italian Muslim scholar, who publicly
condemns the Palestinian Authority and its chairman Yasser Arafat for distorting the
teachings of Islam for their own purposes.
During his recent visit to Canada, Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi said in an interview with
The CJN that the Qu'uran recognizes the Land of Israel as the heritage of the Jews and
that the modern State of Israel is the fulfillment of the prophecy that, before the Last
Judgment, the Jewish people will return to dwell there.
Those who rise up against Israel in the name of Islam are committing "fitnah," meaning
apostasy and sedition, Palazzi said, and those who encourage the ignorant to do so are
"terrorist criminals."
He is a harsh critic of Palestinian suicide bombers and what he sees as the sacrifice of
children in the current intifadah. No "paradise" awaits those who die this way, Palazzi
said. "Islam forbids suicide for any reason."
He accuses "pseudo-Islamic" organizations, like Hamas, of cruelly exploiting the
impoverished in refugee camps. "Unfortunately, it is true that their only opportunity for a
better future lies in sacrificing their children as suicide bombers, for which they will be
paid by these organizations."
The only justification for a Muslim to rebel against the government he or she lives under
is if that authority prevents them from abiding by the laws and practices of Islam. That is
definitely not the case with regard to Israel and Arabs under its jurisdiction, said Palazzi,
who is emphatic that Muslims actually have more freedom in Israel than they do in many
Arab states.
Palazzi says there is no need for a Palestinian state and that a nationality known as
"Palestinian" never existed before 1967.
"A Palestinian state is inconceivableŠ It would simply be a time bomb under Israel,
Jordan and the whole Middle East," he said. "In two to five years, it would become a
basis for terrorism like Afghanistan under the Taliban."
Palazzi thinks the only "realistic" solution is to give the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza
autonomous administration, similar to that now extended to the Tyrolean region of
northern Italy, where German is the official language. But first the PLO, Hamas and other
terrorist groups should be expelled from the area and "not one weapon" should be
allowed to remain.
"There are already two "Palestinian' states: Israel and Jordan. What is being suggested is a
third Palestinian state," Palazzi said.
He also dismisses the notion that Jerusalem, because it is the traditional site of
Mohammed's ascension to heaven, must be the Palestinian capital. "A city's religious
status is not necessary connected to its political role... Mecca, for example, was never the
capital of Saudi Arabia. At the time of Mohammed,
Jerusalem was, in fact, under Persian administration."
Palazzi said a "Palestinian" people has never existed in history. Before 1967, the Arabs in
the West Bank were Jordanians and those in Gaza were Egyptians, he said. Arafat
himself, Palazzi claims, is really an Egyptian.
Palazzi, a Sufi, is the chief imam of Italy's approximately 500,000 Muslims and is
director of the community's Cultural Institute, which seeks dialogue with Jews and
Christians. His mother's family is originally from Syria.
He has strongly condemned Islamic fundamentalism and the dictatorial regimes in much
of the Arab world, and has upheld Israel's right to use military force to defend itself.
He charges that if there had been an uprising "one-tenth" the strength of that which Israel
is confronting in any Arab country, it would have been "met with an order of 'open fire'
and be over in a week."
Palazzi believes many Palestinians realize they would be better off under Israeli
administration than in a PLO-ruled state, but they cannot speak out, fearing for their lives
or those of their children. "At least in Israel, an Arab can have a new car and be sure he
will not be stopped by the police and told to hand it over because it is needed for the state.
That happens under Arafat."
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been "artificially created" to focus attention away from
the lack of economic and social progress in most of the Arab world, Palazzi argues. "The
Palestinian people have been scapegoats to justify everything that is wrong in the Arab
world," he said.
Palazzi is also unsparing in this denunciation of the Saudi Wahhabi regime, which he
calls "evil" and accuses of spending millions of "petro-dollars" to support those who
commit terrorism against Israel.
His visit to Canada, his first, was sponsored by the Montreal-based Canadian Institute for
Jewish Research and the Asper Foundation. He spoke in three synagogues in Montreal,
Toronto and Winnipeg.
Palazzi was denounced by the Canadian Islamic Congress as an "anti-Islamic
campaigner." The Waterloo, Ont.,-based organization accused the Asper Foundation of
"playing with fire by using Canadian synagogues as platformsŠ" for his views.
"These are very emotionally charged times," Mohamed Elmasry, the congress' national
president, said in a press release. "To bring [Palazzi] into Canada is bad enough, but
using synagogues to give [him] public voice during these tense times is simply
irresponsible... It is dangerously inappropriate for anyone to exploit such a volatile
situation."
Palazzi is unfazed by those who discredit him and says he does not fear for his safety.
"Even those who criticize me cannot put into question my religious authority. I have a
license to teach from the late Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabi [Sheikh Abdul Aziz Ibn Baz]
and I am still invited to the general assembly of Muslim scholars called during the
pilgrimage to Mecca."
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"In this special instance "a letter from Ireland"
(Submitted by Dr. Al Mutchnik)
An insightful editorial from an Irish newspaper.
"So blame it on the Jews"
Sunday 10 March 2002
The Sunday Independent (Ireland)
Israel, the only democratic state in the Middle East, deserves our moral
support, says Declan McCormack. It's open season for Jew-bashing in the
West at the moment. As the Middle East's only democracy is subjected to wave after wave of vicious terrorist attacks by Palestinian gunmen and suicide bombers the pious West and the sanctimoniously 'liberal' Western media lay the blame firmly where it has always lain -- with the Jews.
Yes, while every other democracy in the 'free world' claims a sovereign
God-given right to extirpate terrorism and to protect their innocent
citizens from the evil deeds of men and women of violence, the Jewish state of Israel is supposed to take the vicious, murderous attacks on its citizens lying down and presumably apologizing for its existence, for the Jewish people's history and for 'going on about' the Holocaust.
The Jews were, after all, made to be attacked, annihilated and scapegoated.
First the pogroms, then the expulsion, then the name-calling. How odd of God to choose the Jews, indeed. But, of course, no-one -- even the rabidly pro Palestinian Western media -- really approves of these attacks on ordinary Jews. No-one, that is, except the gore-glorying Arab mobs who celebrate every blood-bedraggled mission by dancing in the little streets of the Palestinian townships.
We in the West would rather the ordinary Israelis who travel on buses or who attend bar-mitzvahs or eat as a family in pizza parlours weren't blown to pieces by Palestinian suicide bombers because it doesn't square with our
cherished notion that the poor Palestinian freedom fighters are being
savagely bullied by the US-backed fascist colonial Semitic superpower that
is Israel. Little urchin catapult wielders fighting against Merkava tanks
and Hellfire missile-shooting fighter jets.
Of course, all Palestinian violence is mere retaliation. Sure, wouldn't you
blow yourself up right beside a Jewish mother and her small children if you
had to queue up everyday at Israeli checkpoints? Sure, we all know that
Ariel Sharon is worse than Hitler. Remember the Lebanese massacres
(perpetrated by Lebanese Christians against Lebanese Arabs). How could you ever forget when they're mentioned in every news report, even as the
blown-to-pieces bodies of Israeli children are picked off the streets of
Jerusalem. Don't, of course, mention the 1997 suicide bombing which killed 13 Israelis in Jerusalem just after Israel had given the PLO control of Hebron. It doesn't really fit in with this schema whereby all Palestinian
violence is just the understandable reaction of a downtrodden people to the
gratuitous incursions and the targeted killings by Israel.
Don't mention, either, the fact that while Israel only targets terrorists
who endanger the lives of their families by using them as human shields
(thus the killing of the Hamas leader's family last week, for which Israel
apologized) while the lovely, generous Palestinians (as described on
Liveline last Tuesday) support terrorist organizations who purposely kill
Israelis at random. But then they're only Israelis. Jews. And what are they
doing in Zion, anyway. Zionists! Fascists! Colonists!
And so the West lends immoral support to the Palestinians and delivers
high-minded lectures to Israel about 'how to handle terrorists without
hurting anyone'. Lesson one when, eh, we haven't worked out the details yet. The Swedes are very good at giving this advice. They had a great record in the last war facilitating Nazi steel transportation. And, of course, the UN High Commissioner Mary Robinson, formerly President of neutral Ireland, has been getting up on her high nelly lecturing Israel and telling them to be respectful of minorities. Especially, one presumes, suicide bombers at bus-stops. It wasn't that long ago since Ms. Robinson was emoting about how she herself was a Jew (back in August last year in South Africa, to be precise). She might just show a little consideration for the embattled and terrorized Jews of Israel now.
She might also bear in mind that someone else recently announced in public that he was a Jew. The kidnapped Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl was forced by his captors to say on video in a sick parody of the Palestinian Martyrs' final self-glorifying videos that he was a Jew and that his father was a Jew and his mother a Jew. That said, his Muslim captors slit his throat and cut off his head. Nice people.
In the ongoing Middle Eastern and potentially worldwide battle between Islam and Judaism it is sincerely to be hoped that this time out some European countries may learn the lesson of their obscene history and bring themselves to say and mean that 'in that case, I'm a Jew'. They could start by giving moral support to the only democratic state in the Middle East as it tries to quell a coldly calculated uprising inspired by little else except the
ideology and praxis of terrorism and the undiluted anti-Semitic hatred of
the toxic wing of Islam.
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