Flotilla was a provocation that Israel could not win May 31, 2010
Posted by aleynu in Israel / Palestine.Tags: Israel, Palestine
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The following appeared in the May 31 2010 Jerusalem Post.
By Yaakov Katz
Israel likely lost the battle over the flotilla of international aid ships on their way to the Gaza Strip even before the activists left their home countries and gathered in Cyprus late last week.
From a global media perspective, the story is pretty clear. Hundreds of international activists, some of them parliamentarians from Europe and Israel, are trying to bring thousands of tons of supplies to the Gaza Strip, and Israel is stopping them.
For the international media and its consumers, the reasons behind Israel’s decision do not make much of a difference, since what Israel is doing fits the way it is already widely perceived – as a violent aggressor abusing a weak and poor Palestinian people.
In its defense, Israel, this time, did not stand by idly as it was slammed throughout the world. It launched a diplomatic initiative aimed at explaining to the world why it planned to stop the ships.
First, it made the claim that the Gaza Strip was not suffering from a humanitarian crisis and that the thousands of tons in supplies that the ships were carrying were not really needed, since it was all already supplied to the Palestinians by Israel. The IDF went so far as to invite media down to the Kerem Shalom crossing to videotape the hundreds of trucks that transfer supplies daily from Israel to Gaza. At the same time, Israel offered to transfer the shipments on the boats to the Gaza Strip after they were unloaded at the Ashdod Port and inspected.
Next, it tackled the delegitimization effort. Stories were leaked by the government to the press about the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), the Turkish organization that is behind the flotilla, described as a “radical Islamic organization” that was outlawed by Israel in 2008 for allegedly serving as a major component in Hamas’s global fund-raising machine.
In the end, though, none of this official Israeli counter-effort will really make a difference, since what will ultimately determine the impact of the flotilla saga will be the pictures and videotapes published and broadcast around the world.
All that is needed for the flotilla to “succeed” is a single picture of an Israeli soldier applying a headlock to an international activist. And no matter how hard Israel tries to block broadcasts from the ships, the pictures will get out. Facebook and Twitter are already full of snapshots, around-the-clock updates and even a live streaming video.
Israel had other options. One was to stop the ships far out at sea, inspect them, maybe even arrest a terror suspect or two if there were such aboard, and then let the ships sail freely into Gaza.
Another option was to simply let the ships through unchecked. In the absence of intelligence indicating that the ships were carrying arms, the risk might not have been that great. Yes, it could have paved the way for additional flotillas, but all of these could be inspected by the navy, which would be tasked with ruling out the possibility that arms were being smuggled in by sea.
Let’s not fool ourselves. Even if Israel allowed these ships and all such ships to dock in Gaza City’s harbor, it would still be accused of laying siege to the Palestinians in the Strip since, albeit along with Egypt, it controls the land crossings.
In the end, after all, the flotilla is just another chapter in an international campaign to chip away at Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself.
Why Aren’t Advocates for Democracy Organizing ‘Arab Apartheid Week’ ? March 11, 2010
Posted by aleynu in Israel / Palestine.Tags: Israel, Zionism
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- Here’s an insightful piece into what’s wrong with the New Left, which has forsaken its values for trite platitudes about justice and democracy.
From the March 11th Jerusalem Post
by MICHAEL FREUND
-
Arab states remain the last great outpost
of despotism and tyranny.
- In nearly three dozen cities across the world, a coordinated series of events is being held this week with the express aim of demonizing Israel. Now in its sixth year, the annual hate-fest known as “Israel Apartheid Week” has sought to portray the Jewish state as a bastion of bigotry, inequality and discrimination.
- The organizers do not mince words in describing their objectives, asserting on their Web site that they aim “to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns” against the Jewish state. This, they confidently declare, is a key part of “the battle to end Israeli apartheid,” whatever that means.
- Naturally, behind the sloganeering stands a clear political platform, one which essentially seeks to dismantle the Jewish state by stripping it of territory and flooding the country with millions of Palestinian refugees through the so-called right of return.
- The first step in this campaign, of course, is to equate Israel with the evils of apartheid-era South Africa, thereby laying the groundwork for increased diplomatic and economic pressure to make far-reaching concessions. And so, as usual, the only democracy in the Middle East once again finds itself on the receiving end of yet another indefensible canard, accused of one of modernity’s greatest political sins without any basis or justification.
- SIMPLY PUT, this slur cannot be allowed to stand. It is an insult to Israel and its democracy and dangerously analogous to asserting that Zionism is a form of racism. If allowed to take hold in the public’s consciousness, it could have far-reaching and extremely damaging effects on support for Israel in the near- and long-term. In the past, the typical response by pro-Israel activists to such charges has been to go on the defensive, responding to the slanders and explaining in great detail the myriad differences between democratic Israel and the racist regime that once ruled South Africa.
- Well, I say the time has come to stop playing defense and to bring the offense out onto the field. We need to turn the tables and fight back against our opponents by taking the struggle toward their end-zone.
- A good place to be start would be to organize an annual “Arab Apartheid Week,” which would highlight the decrepit state of human and political rights throughout the Arab world.
- There is a solid case to be made that the Arab states remain the last great outpost of despotism and tyranny on earth, and people need to be reminded as much. Indeed, the Arab world today is a living encyclopedia of outmoded forms of government, from sultanates such as Oman and emirates such as Qatar, to thuggish dictatorships such as Syria and dynastic monarchies along the lines of Jordan. It may be a political scientist’s dream, but it is a nightmare for the hundreds of millions of Arabs chafing under oppression and tyranny.
- Basic and fundamental freedoms such as personal autonomy and individual rights are routinely trampled upon, and ethnic and religious minority groups suffer extreme discrimination and intolerance. Just ask Coptic Christians in Egypt, Baha’is in Iran or Shi’ites in Saudi Arabia for starters.
- This was borne out most recently by a report issued by Freedom House, the independent Washington-based group that advocates for freedom worldwide. Its annual survey, “Freedom in the World 2010,” would make for eye-opening reading for all those who cry “apartheid” whenever they see a flag with a Star of David.
- Consider the following findings:
- Of the 18 countries in the Middle East that Freedom House surveyed, only one is considered to be “free.”
- And just who might that be? Yep, you guessed it: Israel.
- Not a single Arab country – not one! – did Freedom House consider “free.” Three Arab states – Morocco, Lebanon and Kuwait – were labeled “partly free,” while 13 other Arab states as well as Iran merited the dubious distinction of being branded as “not free.”
- In effect, then, this means that of the approximately 370 million human beings currently residing in the Middle East, only 2 percent enjoy true freedom – namely those who live in the Jewish state.
- So much for “Israeli apartheid.”
- NOT SURPRISINGLY, in a press release announcing the report’s publication, Freedom House concluded that “the Middle East remained the most repressive region in the world.” It is this message that Israel and its supporters need to begin highlighting. By casting a spotlight on the subjugation, oppression and tyranny that typify nearly the entire Arab world, we can open some eyes out there and educate the Western public as to who really shares their democratic values.
- As Prof. Bernard Lewis has written, the Arab states are little more than “a string of shabby tyrannies, ranging from traditional autocracies to new-style dictatorships, modern only in their apparatus of repression and indoctrination.”
- An annual Arab Apartheid Week, held on campuses and at community centers, could be an effective vehicle for driving home this fundamental truth.
- Doing so will reframe the debate. More importantly, it will help Westerners to finally begin recognizing the Arab regimes for what they are: a dangerous mix of despotism and dictatorship.
The Warped Mirror: Spinning the death of a terrorist March 2, 2010
Posted by aleynu in Middle East.Tags: Islam, Israel
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Posted by Petra Marquardt-Bigman
February 28, 2010
The media continue to give prominent coverage to the investigation of the death of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, whose body was found some six weeks ago in a Dubai luxury hotel. Dubai’s police authorities have boasted that it took them just 24 hours to come close to solving the case, and their ostensible professionalism and efficiency have been widely praised after the release of extensive CCTV footage that supposedly shows various teams involved in al-Mabhouh’s assassination.
However, it seems that few in the media have been willing to notice what was rightly highlighted in a report by Global Post correspondent Tom Hundley, who pointed out that Dubai “has become a kind of Arabian Big Easy where a senior operative in a powerful political organization can be assassinated in a five-star hotel – and the crime will be hushed up for more than a week while the powers-that-be decide how the story will be spun.”
Indeed, it is definitely noteworthy that almost ten days elapsed before Mabhouh’s assassination was announced by the UAE government’s official press agency, which reported on the day of his funeral that he had been killed by an “experienced criminal gang.”
Unsurprisingly, Hamas immediately claimed that Israel was responsible for the assassination, and it didn’t take long for the authorities in Dubai to announce that they were “99% sure” that the Mossad had killed Mabhouh; by now, there are even media reports claiming that the Dubai police chief has challenged the director of Israel’s Mossad to “be a man” and admit that his agency was behind Mabhouh’s assassination.
The authorities in Dubai have every reason to be pleased with the media focus on speculations about Israel’s involvement in Mabhouh’s demise, because there are plenty of newsworthy issues that could be raised if the media were not so busy with the popular “blame-Israel” game.
Forbes columnist Claudia Rosett has been one of the few commentators to address the proverbial “bigger picture”. She argues that, given Dubai’s proudly demonstrated surveillance capabilities, the obvious question now is: “where’s the rest of the Dubai video collection?”
Rosett notes that in addition to attracting many legitimate businesses, Dubai also serves “as a way station, meeting place and financial center for tyrannical regimes and terrorists.” Among the examples she provides is evidence gathered by the US 9/11 commission that indicates that several of the hijackers passed through Dubai en route to attack the US; two of them came from the United Arab Emirates, and about half of the funds used to prepare for the attacks was transferred through Dubai banks.
Likewise, Saddam Hussein’s regime used Dubai as a hub to conduct illegitimate transactions, and nowadays, Dubai serves as Iran’s top trading partner; a recent paper issued by the Brookings Institution highlights Dubai’s “critical role as Iran’s offshore banker and exporter.”
Rosett suggests that the surveillance capabilities of Dubai’s authorities could perhaps also provide important insights into “the deadly nature of the business pursued in airports, malls and hotel rooms by such killers as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or by Iran’s pet terrorist organizations, Hezbollah and al-Mabhouh’s outfit – Hamas.”
It is indeed interesting to see how determined the Dubai authorities are to solve the murder of a terrorist on their territory, while they seem considerably less eager to find out what brought Mabhouh to Dubai. Apparently, he had traveled there using a false passport, but otherwise, Dubai authorities revealed only that in the hours before his death, he met “with members of his group and bought a pair of shoes.” Rosett therefore concludes:
Dubai’s authorities are putting on a curious display of priorities, appearing far more incensed over the murder of one Hamas terrorist than over the use of their turf for terrorists such as al-Mabhouh to plot and facilitate the murders – albeit elsewhere – of many others.”
Judging from much of the media commentary and the resulting public debate, the priorities of Dubai’s authorities are widely shared: a lot of people are apparently very concerned that terrorists like Mabhouh won’t feel safe in the luxury hotels of places like Dubai; by contrast, the international media coverage and reactions reflect much less concern and interest when it comes to the question of what terrorists like Mabhouh are up to when they stay in luxury hotels in places like Dubai.
But would anyone be surprised if a very similar story was spun very differently as long as there was no chance of blaming Israel?
Is the Iranian Regime Collapsing? February 26, 2010
Posted by aleynu in Middle East.Tags: Iran, Islam, Shiite Islam
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This is by Menashe Amir, chief editor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Persian-language website and former head of the Israel Broadcasting Authority’s Persian-language division. (Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
To grasp Iran’s ambitions and foreign policy it is necessary to understand the Islamic Republic’s religious ideology which aspires to establish global Islamic rule – under Shi’ite leadership. This belief lies at the heart of Iran’s foreign policy, including its ambition to acquire nuclear weapons. Ayatollah Khomeini ruled that a Muslim mustn’t touch infidels, deal with them, or come into contact with them. Jews, in particular, are considered unclean. Iranian leaders call for the annihilation of Israel because these “unclean Jews” occupy the Muslim land of Palestine and hold the keys to the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque. When Ahmadinejad declared that Israel ought to be wiped off the map, he added that this was merely the first stage of the confrontation with the West, which means Christianity. Indeed, part of the animosity that Iranians express toward Judaism and Israel stems from the fact that they consider Judaism to be a pillar of the Christian faith.
The Revolutionary Guards have taken over most of the economy, most of the political positions, and have infiltrated the judiciary system, though they continue to let Khamenei act as the face of their regime. Unlike the religious leaders of Iran, the Revolutionary Guards lack moral and religious values, with the exception of one very deep religious belief: that they are the messengers of the Mahdi, the vanguard of the messiah. In one possible scenario, the regime will collapse from the inside. Changes to the system of subsidies can only add to Ahmadinejad’s unpopularity. In this context, international pressure and sanctions on Iran will very much influence the continuation of the struggle against the regime.
Why Can’t Britain Follow Israel’s Lead? February 23, 2010
Posted by aleynu in Israel / Palestine, Middle East.Tags: Israel, Palestine
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The Daily Express
Friday February 19,2010
By Chris Roycroft-Davis
EXCUSE me for not sending flowers to the funeral of the terrorist the Israelis bumped off in Dubai. Unlike the bleeding hearts in the liberal media I’m not shedding any tears.
As military chief of terrorist group Hamas, Mahmoud al Mabhouh had the blood of many Israeli soldiers and civilians on his hands. He was in charge of smuggling rockets and grenades into the Gaza Strip so his murderous gangs could lob them into Israel.
He could hardly complain when a hit squad from Mossad, the Israeli security service, brought his life to a swift end. To say he had it coming is an understatement.
So why such a fuss about his execution? Why has the Foreign office twisted the arm of the Israeli ambassador? And possibly the most crucial question of all: whose side are we on, the terrorists or those with the courage to stand up to them?
The Israelis don’t mess about, they don’t sit back and take it. You kill one of them and they will kill you. And afterwards they won’t explain, they won’t apologise, they won’t even deny it.
WORLD opinion means nothing – what ever London, Washington or Damascus may say the Israelis are convinced that they are right. An eye for an eye is the most basic concept of natural justice, dating back 4,000 years to Babylonian times and is promoted three times in the old Testament. Even in the New Testament Jesus says: Those who take up the sword shall die by the sword.
Did Mahmoud al-Mabhouh reflect on that as he checked in to room 230 at his posh hotel in Dubai? He was the man behind the kidnapping and killing of two Israel soldiers 21 years ago; he had been smuggling arms into the Gaza Strip; he was believed to be in Dubai to buy more weapons from an Iranian dealer. If Mossad agents came to call they were hardly there to inquire after his health.
Unlike Britain, Israel doesn’t tolerate an enemy within. It doesn’t give those who hate them free housing and welfare handouts. It doesn’t let the right of free speech enable them to preach murder on its streets.
Retribution is a vital part of Israel’s psyche. After the Second World War the Israelis spent half a century tracking down evil Nazis. When Israeli athletes were murdered at the 1972 Olympics their Palestinian killers were hunted around the world and eliminated: one by a bomb in his bed, another by a booby-trapped phone.
Who can forget the electrifying raid on Entebbe in 1976 when Israeli special forces stormed a hijacked airliner, killed the terrorists and freed all but three of the hostages? It was a salutary lesson to the world.
You’d think that Britain of all countries would understand the need to pull no punches with those who have sworn to be your enemies. That’s what the SAS did in Northern Ireland for more than 30 years, taking out IRA members before they could perpetrate further outrages. It is what our special forces did in Iraq and are doubtless doing in Afghanistan.
It is what the SAS should be doing today in Somalia, where British yacht couple Paul and Rachel Chandler are being held by pirates. Can you imagine the Israelis allowing two of their people to suffer so long in some fly-blown African hellhole?
Israel has no reason to be ashamed of its actions. As Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman points out: “our security activity is conducted according to the very clear, very cautious and responsible rules of the game.” rule No 1 of course in any security activity is kill or be killed.
Where Britain has a right to be upset, however, is the way the Israelis have carried out ID theft on the passports of six of our citizens. It’s not the first time they’ve done it and last time they promised they wouldn’t do it again.
One Foreign office source says Britain could cut ties with Mossad if the Israelis have been “found to be acting against British interests”. You might think executing the would terrorist might be precisely in our interests but the career diplomats take a loftier view.
Gordon Brown says Israel has questions to answer about nicking our passports but the implication is that Britain wouldn’t be in the least bit put out if the Israeli hit squad had used fake documents from Libya, Japan, Peru – in fact anywhere other than Britain.
BROWN even has the cheek to spout that “a British passport is an important part of being British”. This from a Prime Minister whose policy was to welcome millions of immigrants so he could socially engineer the country to be less British and more likely to vote Labour.
We should take no lessons either from the BBC, which for too long refused to call Hamas suicide bombers “terrorists” and hid behind weasel words like “radicals” and “militants”. Its anti-Israel bias is clear today when BBC News pontificates that Israel “may have scored a costly own goal” by using British identities for what it calls “nefarious activities”.
Make no mistake, I think a British passport is the most valuable document in the world and I don’t like it being used to gain illegal entry to another country. But my top priority will always be security and the world is undoubtedly more secure now Hamas has lost another murderer from its ranks.
Rank Hypocrisy February 14, 2010
Posted by aleynu in Israel / Palestine, Middle East.Tags: Israel, Palestine
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An insightful piece from David A. Harris, Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee
I know I shouldn’t be surprised any longer, but I still can’t help it. In a recent edition of The New York Times, after seeing 25 column inches on page A4 devoted to an article entitled “Israel Rebukes 2 in Attack on U.N. Complex,” I read a short news item two pages later. It wasn’t quite eight lines long, the fourth of five items under “World Briefing.”
Here are the first two (of three) sentences:
“A human rights group criticized Jordan on Monday for stripping the citizenship of nearly 3,000 Jordanians of Palestinian origin in recent years. Concerned about increasing numbers of Palestinians, who make up nearly half the population, Jordan began in 2004 revoking the citizenship from Palestinians who do not have Israeli permits to reside in the West Bank.”
Apart from the scanty news coverage of what is, after all, an important story – thousands of people losing their citizenship as a country seeks to tilt its delicate demographic balance – there is, of course, another issue.
Apart from the group that blew the whistle on this years-old policy, where is the outcry?
When Israel is accused, however unjustly, of any alleged misdeed against the Palestinians, the din is immediate and deafening. But when fellow Arabs are shown to be inflicting real damage on the Palestinians, there’s hardly a peep.
Since the story surfaced nearly a week ago, I’ve looked in vain for editorials, columns, op-ed pieces, or letters-to-the-editor on the citizenship policy. Couldn’t find a thing.
I checked on the usual addresses that profess to care about the Palestinian fate – the UN General Assembly, UN Human Rights Council, UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories, Arab League, Organization of the Islamic Conference, and Non-Aligned Movement, among others – and found nothing.
I looked at the usually loquacious individuals and groups for whom the Palestinian issue is the alpha and omega of human rights questions – the first and last example of refugees ever produced by conflict – and met a blank slate.
Silence from the mayor of Malmo. Silence from the London School of Economics Student Union. Silence from the British trade unionists who want to boycott Israel. Silence from the Norwegian academics who wish to shun their Israeli counterparts. Silence from those who seek to remove Israeli products from Trader Joe’s and Carrefour supermarkets. Silence from the media outlets that can be counted on to slam Israel for every perceived violation of Palestinian rights. Well, you get the point.
In other words, when Israel takes action to defend itself, pro-Palestinian forces around the world are ready to mobilize at a moment’s notice with emergency sessions, self-righteous indignation, heated resolutions, angry protests, boycotts, letter-writing campaigns, and over-the-top ads.
Yet, these very same forces are AWOL if Israel is not involved. They simply can’t be bothered. Suddenly, their self-described anguish over the Palestinian plight evaporates. And, of course, this isn’t the first such instance.
Here are two other examples.
In 1990, Saddam Hussein ordered Iraqi forces to occupy Kuwait, claiming it was a province of his country. After the Iraqi military was ousted, Kuwaiti officials ordered the expulsion of 300-400,000 Palestinians who had been living in the country, in some cases for decades. The Palestinians were accused of having served as a fifth column for Iraq. Out they went.
Stop to think about it. An entire community was labeled subversive and kicked out en masse. That’s a pretty heavy-duty step by a government that offered no judicial recourse, no right of appeal, and no compassion for the broken lives.
Where is the moral outrage? Why the telling silence?
Where were pro-Palestinian forces at the time? Again, missing in action. They couldn’t pin the blame directly on Israel – although indirectly they blame everything that happens to the Palestinians on Israel’s very being – so the fate of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing Kuwait didn’t cause them sleepless nights.
Or how about the situation of Palestinians living in Lebanon? According to UNRWA, there are over 400,000 Palestinians registered with the UN agency. Most have been there for decades. In line with UNRWA policy, there is no mandate to resettle these Palestinians or future generations. Rather, they are deliberately kept as “refugees,” unlike any other such population in the world.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese government has adopted resolutions and decrees over the years effectively aimed at the Palestinians in the country. “Foreigners,” meaning Palestinians, are restricted from working in over 70 different professions in Lebanon, including medicine, dentistry, law and accounting.
Moreover, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon cannot today purchase property, and those who bought land before 2001 are barred from passing it on to their children. Only Lebanese citizens have the right to form non-governmental organizations. Palestinian refugees must do so through others since they are not accorded the chance to acquire Lebanese nationality.
Pretty draconian stuff. Yet, once again, where is the moral outrage of those who claim concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people? Why the telling silence?
Oh yes, I had forgotten. It’s not Israel placing the stiff restrictions on Palestinian professional activity, land purchases, or the formation of civic associations, so it doesn’t pass muster as a cause worth pursuing.
If this isn’t a case of rank hypocrisy and transparent double standards, then what is?
Gotta Love that Arab Democratic System February 10, 2010
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Some 10,000 members of The Moslem Brotherhood have been prosecuted in Egypt over the last 20 years; 5,000 are in administrative detention, and several leaders have been sentenced to long stretches in jail. Every Egyptian government since Nasser has been fighting the Brotherhood at one time or another. The Brotherhood has remained faithful to the extremist religious doctrine of the man who founded it in Egypt in 1928, Hassan el-Banna, and of its greatest theologian, Sayed Qotob.
Israel’s Disproportionate Response January 24, 2010
Posted by aleynu in Israel / Palestine, Middle East.Tags: Islam, Israel, Zionism
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This is by a blogger named David Marcus. Thank you, David.
Many countries and world leaders have accused Israel of responding
disproportionately to aggression from Hizballah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. However, it is time that the world press and media speak of another disproportionate response from Israel.
The terrible disastrous earthquake in Haiti has generated responses from many nations. The US has sent supplies and personnel, Britain sent 64 firemen and 8 volunteers, France sent troops for Search and Rescue. Many large and wealthy nations of the world sent money. The Arab and Moslem world: nothing.
Israel, a nation of 7.5 million people has sent a team of 220 people that include Medical personnel and will establish the largest field hospital in Haiti, treating up to 5000 people a day, an experienced Search and Rescue team and medical supplies. As in previous earthquake disasters, such as in Gujarat India in 2001 and in Turkey, in the bombings in Kenya, Israel has been one of the most generous givers of aid and assistance.
Turkey seems to have forgotten this help as its (right-leaning) Moslem Government is cozying up to Iran.
The favorite occupation in the UN is Israel bashing. More resolutions have been passed condemning Israel than all the so called democratic nations such as Sudan, China, Russia and others for their crimes against their minorities.
I think it is time that the world should know about Israel’s disproportionate response.
Why Do Muslims Resort to Stereotypes While They Resent It When It’s About Them January 22, 2010
Posted by aleynu in Israel / Palestine.Tags: Islam, Zionism
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from IsraPundit, Jan 14 2010
An Egyptian news website has condemned (a statement made by an Israeli rabbi), which not surprisingly found his comments to be inflammatory. However, such expressions of moral outrage are curiously inconsistent with the Egyptian media’s routine publication of antisemitic content worthy of Der Stuermer. Egyptian media outlets commonly depict Jews as racially-distinctive, hook-nosed caricatures, report as fact a multitude of mythical Jewish conspiracies, exploit the antisemitic imagery of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and provide a forum for devotees of the blood libel. The government-sponsored newspapers Al-Ahram and al-Goumhuriyya regularly run articles and cartoons in the classic antisemitic tradition, as do other sources throughout the Arab world. The media rogues’ gallery includes most major press outlets, including:
• Al Jazeera, which broadcasts the rants of clerics who quote Quran and Hadith in calling for the destruction of Israel and the extermination of the Jews.
• Al-Arab al-Yaum, a Jordanian daily that has published such offensive articles as “Killing Children According to Jewish Faith,” (March 8, 2008), which reported that Jews kill Gentile children and use their blood for religious rituals. The Damascus Blood Libel is clearly considered historical fact.
• SANA, the Syrian Arab News Agency, which has run stories calling the Holocaust a Zionist myth and describing Jewish or Zionist plots to colonize the Mideast.
• Al-Riyadh, the Saudi daily, which has printed articles reporting the blood libel as historical fact. As reported by MEMRI, for example, the newspaper in 2002 published an article in which the commentator expounded on the holiday of Purim, stating among other things that:
During this holiday [Purim], the Jew must prepare very special pastries, the filling of which is not only costly and rare –– it cannot be found at all on the local and international markets . . .
For this holiday, the victim must be a mature adolescent who is, of course, a non-Jew – that is, a Christian or a Muslim. His blood is taken and dried into granules. The cleric blends these granules into the pastry dough; they can also be saved for the next holiday. In contrast, for the Passover slaughtering, about which I intend to write one of these days, the blood of Christian and Muslim children under the age of 10 must be used, and the cleric can mix the blood [into the dough] before or after dehydration. MEMRI, Special Dispatch No. 354, citing Al Riyadh, March 10, 2002.
Arab and other foreign media outlets have often disseminated stories about supposed Jewish plots for world domination, schemes to control financial institutions, and conspiracies to manipulate the media. Other popular themes have included “scholarly” claims of intrinsic religious corruption within Judaism, or pseudo-scientific reports suggesting that the Temple never stood in Jerusalem or that the Jews did not originate in ancient Israel, but rather were descended from non-indigenous peoples who usurped a country – Palestine – that never existed.
The mainstream media in the United States is quick to denounce any perceived affronts to Arab or Islamic culture, and just as quick to condemn any alleged expressions of Jewish or Israeli chauvinism. But the media is reluctant to criticize antisemitic expressions from Arab or Muslim sources, draw any connection between Islamism and terrorism, acknowledge the history of Arab expansion and colonialism, or discuss the supremacist implications of jihad – even as it openly plays out in Europe. Rather, liberal pundits often wax dreamily poetic when discussing the so-called “golden age of Islam” or the myth of Islamic tolerance. Moreover, they tend to rationalize any antisemitic or anti-Western expressions in the Arab world as reactions to Israeli intransigence or American colonialism.
In reality, there was no real sense of tolerance for “infidels” in the Arab-Muslim world. Historically, Jews in Arab lands were relegated to the status of dhimmi who often lived in ghettos, were endowed with few if any substantive rights, and were subject to the whim and whimsy of their hostile neighbors. Although many in the West believe that Jewish life was more tolerable through the ages in the Islamic lands, the general treatment of Jews there was in fact not much different than in Christian Europe, and sometimes was even worse.
During the early Islamic period, for example, Jews were required to wear distinctive badges or metal seals around their necks, and starting in the 9th Century the Caliphate in Baghdad required Jews to wear the yellow badge – a practice that was later adopted in Christian Europe during the Middle Ages. Starting in the year 1005, the Jews of Egypt were required to wear bells on their garments, and in Medieval Baghdad they were often physically branded. In many Arab countries Jews were required to live in ghettos and were not permitted to use the same public bath houses as Muslims. At various times throughout Islamic history, Jews of the Mideast and North Africa were subjected to pogroms, massacres and forced conversions just as they were in Europe.
The dangerous illusion of the ‘peace process’ January 12, 2010
Posted by aleynu in Israel / Palestine, Middle East.Tags: Israel, Palestine
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from The Jerusalem Post, Jan. 12, 2010
by Danny Danon, deputy speaker of the Knesset and chairman of World Likud.
The “peace process” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority looks set to be relaunched. US Mideast envoy George Mitchell is due to arrive in the region sometime this month. In his suitcase will be terms of reference for the renewal of negotiations by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and PA President Mahmoud Abbas. It is expected that these will prove sufficient to draw the Palestinian leader back to the negotiating table.
Make no mistake; such talks will be an exercise in futility. It is quite obvious that the core demands of the Palestinian side will prevent any real possibility of progress.
Nevertheless, Israel’s very agreement to return to the negotiating table with the PA signifies the government’s acceptance of an absurd situation in which the PA simultaneously conducts a policy of war against Israel while proclaiming to the world its desire for peace.
LAST MONTH, Rabbi Meir Avshalom Hai from Shavei Shomron was murdered in a drive-by shooting, leaving behind a wife and seven children. The terrorists who killed him were veteran members of Abbas’s Fatah movement and senior fighters in its “military wing” – the Aksa Martyrs Brigades. Following this murder, security forces tracked down and killed the terrorists while attempting to arrest them.
Instead of condemning the drive-by murder, the Fatah movement and its leader embraced the assassins as “martyrs.” Abbas went so far as to send his personal emissary to visit the families of the three. PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad himself visited their homes, accompanied by two senior PA officials – Internal Affairs Minister Said Abu Ali, who oversees the PA security agencies, and Police Director-General Hazem Atallah.
Moreover, Abbas condemned the killing of the three terrorists and declared that the PA would “review” its security cooperation with Israel as a result.
This situation transcends absurdity. The leader of the very organization that sent Hai’s killers threatens to end “security cooperation” with Israel because it sought to apprehend them, while the very officials who went to pay their respects to the families of the “martyrs” are supposedly Israel’s partners in fighting terror.
The involvement of the ruling Palestinian movement in terrorism represents a blatant violation of the road map and makes a mockery of the PA’s supposed readiness for peace.
NONE OF the above scenarios touches upon Hamas-dictated Gaza; it is still the “moderate” West Bank we are discussing.
If negotiations recommence this month, it will not be long before Israel comes under renewed international pressure to make “confidence-building” gestures to the Palestinians. Inevitably, these will include the relaxation of the stringent security measures in place in Judea and Samaria. It is therefore vital that the government make clear that there can be no return to the failed policies of the 1990s.
We have been here before. In the days of Oslo, a similar “peace process” based on a faulty premise was launched; Israel withdrew from territory and allowed the development of a large Palestinian armed force. Then as now, this force was notionally supposed to help fight terror. Then as now, the Palestinian armed forces largely ignored and sometimes cooperated with the terrorists, culminating in a war against Israel – the second intifada.
It took four years and more than 1,000 lives before tough measures broke the Palestinian terrorist organizations and allowed normal life to return to Israel’s cities and towns. The quiet that has largely held in the past five years is a direct result of the measures put in place by Israel’s security forces following Operation Defensive Shield.
Today, as a result of the uncompromising fight waged against terror, normal life has also become possible for the Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria. The rule of armed militias has gone, and the Palestinian economy had grown at incredible rates while the rest of the world is experiencing a financial crisis.
THE MURDER of Hai, however, demonstrates just how precarious the true situation is – and the response of the PA makes a mockery of the naïve notion that it constitutes a genuine partner for peace. Israel must make crystal clear that the lives of its citizens will not be placed at risk again to facilitate the illusion of a “peace process.”
The reality is that there is currently no partner for peace on the Palestinian side. There is nothing to be gained by finessing this fact, or by seeking to disguise it. Given this situation, all concessions to the PA will serve only to embolden the enemy and endanger Israelis. As the “peace process” road show gets ready to come back to town, responsible Israelis will be watching carefully to ensure that the tragic mistakes of the 1990s are not repeated.
