Thursday, January 31, 2008

Upside Down in New Zealand

There have been some comments sent in which read as if the commenter didn't realize we agree with them; that's why the entry is entitled "Upside Down in New Zealand." As we note in our original introduction, the writer of the article is either ignorant or anti-Semitic. We suggest writing to him and asking. One may send an email to him via the form at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/author/email.cfm?a_id=284&objectid=10488995.



The following story was published in The New Zealand Herald. We leave it to the reader to decide whether the writer is motivated by hate or is simply incredibly ignorant. We do include some comments in brackets.





West stands by while a whole population is illegally jailed



By Matt McCarten

After this week, does anyone doubt that Israel is a terrorist state? Our televisions couldn't hide the truth last week that 1 1/2 million civilians are imprisoned behind walls Israel has built around them. The entire Gaza population is cut off from the world, with no one permitted to leave or enter their compound. All goods, including oil, have been cut. The entire population is starving and without electricity.

[Rather than criticize the factual errors and distortions in the above paragraph, we will simply repeat everything in it that is true.

If you didn't see anything repeated, that's because there isn't anything in the paragraph that's true.]


This imprisonment follows a decision by Israel to collectively punish Palestinian civilians. The reason is that members of the Gaza resistance - mainly Hamas militants - have been causing a nuisance by lobbing home-made missiles over the prison wall into Israel. Damage is minimal but the Israeli Government and its military are embarrassed by these acts of public defiance.

[One wonders precisely what the Hamastan terrorists are resisting, given the fact that they are totally free of Israeli control.

Isn't there a bit of inconsistency in simultaneously demanding Israel completely leave Gaza (as it has), bombarding Israeli civilians with thousands of Kassams, demanding that Israel supply food and fuel to the very terrorists launching the Kassams, and supporting the Arab boycott of Israel?]


What Israel doesn't admit is that its military constantly carries out air raids and "surgical strikes" that kill and maim hundreds of Palestinian civilians, with the blessing of the US administration. The world takes the word of the Israeli Government when it claims it is targeting militants. When innocent victims, including children, are killed and maimed that is accepted as collateral damage.

[When terrorists operate from civilian areas, as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the various Fatah-affiliated groups do, they are both in violation of the Geneva conventions and responsible for any resultant civilian casualties.]


Television shots last week showing tens of thousands of Palestinians civilians streaming into Egypt through holes blown through the wall that encircles Gaza shows Israel's huge crime against the Palestinian people.

[Hmm. Streaming into Egypt! Obviously, if they were being prevented from going into Egypt, it must have been Egypt preventing them from going into Egypt. Why isn't McCarten blasting Egypt for locking up the Palestinian Arabs, especially since it's the Israelis, not the Egyptians, that those Palestinian Arabs keep attacking?]


One of the chilling crimes committed by the Nazis when occupying Poland was walling off a large part of the city of Warsaw, forcing all Jews into it.

Inside these walls there was a Jewish resistance that ran attacks against its jailers. The Nazi occupiers took retaliation by carrying out collective punishment against the civilian population, which included shelling, assassinating their leaders and cutting off supplies.

What's the next move for Israeli leaders? They could have to follow the example of the Nazis who in the end massacred everyone inside the compound.

[Aha! The Zionism = Nazism libel! Mazal tov, McCarten!]


Last year former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was appointed by President Bush to bring peace to the Palestinians. There has been a defining silence from Blair and Bush on Israel's atrocities.

[Perhaps if Israel committed any, they would be more vocal. Where, however, is McCarten's voice on the Palestinian Arab atrocities?]


Every time damage is inflicted by Palestinian bombs tossed over the wall, there are stern pronouncements from the rest of the world that the elected Hamas leaders must stop their population carrying out this mischief. However, these same people are silent when the Israeli military bombs and maims Palestinians in retaliation. Then we wonder why the Palestinians hate us for our hypocrisy.

[Yes. Obviously, Israel should do nothing while the Arab terrorists murder Jews for the crime of ... being Jews.]


The only thing we have heard about Blair since his appointment as peace envoy is that he has converted to Catholicism. I wonder if he considers the irony of him joining the Church that led crusader invasions of Palestine, which caused a lot of the antagonism between Muslims and Christians.

His last diplomatic act in the area was supporting Israel's invasion of Lebanon after a soldier was kidnapped. The Hizbollah still has its hostage and peace is even more elusive than it was then. What the captors want is to swap their handful of Israeli prisoners for people who have been illegally kidnapped and wallow in Israeli prisons. Israel holds more than 6000 people who have been kidnapped or detained without being charged, let alone convicted, of any crime. Some of them are publicly elected officials and representatives.

[Israel, as is both its right and its obligation, has defended itself against Arab terrorists. Hizbollah doesn't just want to swap the innocent Israeli it illegally kidnapped and is holding in violation of international law, even preventing neutral groups such as the International Red Cross from confirming whether Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev are still alive, for a handful of their terrorists; they want to destroy Israel.]


Israel often sends in assassins to murder its opponents - the world is silent when these executions and murders are carried out. When was the last time Hamas murdered an Israeli politician? Never.

[Under the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority was obligated to turn over terrorists to Israel. Since the PA reneged on that obligation, as they have reneged on all their obligations, Israel doesn't have an alternative to going after the terrorists itself.

Technically, Rehavam Zeevi, the last Israeli Cabinet minister who was assassinated by Arab terrorists, was murdered by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. However, there are so many different Arab terrorists groups and they all cooperate so much with each other that it doesn't make much difference.

If it had been Hamas which had been directly rather than indirectly involved, McCarten probably would have written "When was the last time the PFLP murdered an Israeli politician? Never."]


In the final days of Bush's presidency he is desperate to do something right. During his recent visit to the Middle East he said he was there to help win a peaceful outcome for Israel and Palestine. It's a lie of course. His rhetoric was all about rarking up the leaders of the Western client states to try to get their support for bombing Iran into oblivion.

He released a tape of the Iranian Navy threatening US warships on the eve of his visit, but within days it was proved to be a hoax. That didn't stop Bush claiming Iran was now the real evil that had to be destroyed. It's not lost on anyone that the only threat to Israel for hegemony in the region is Iran.

[McCarten must be privy to information nobody else in the world is privy to.]


While all these games go on a whole people are walled in by a military state. Unless the world tells the truth about the terror against the Palestinian people, peace in the Middle East will never happen.

The truth is Israel is a terrorist state and is able to wage crimes on an innocent people because it is funded and abetted by the world's only superpower. Watching the television images of the Palestinians breaking through to freedom surely must make everyone in the world realise we are being sold a great lie about Israel wanting to negotiate peace.

The last place to have a wall that imprisoned a people was Berlin. The then US President Ronald Reagan created a defining moment in world history when he called for the wall to come down.

What we have now is a US president helping fund the Gaza wall. It's an atrocity.

[The Palestinian Arabs keep complaining they want another state of their own. Implicit in statehood are borders which one my not legally cross without the approval of the governments on either side. The existence of a physical barrier does not change that. Hence, complaining about the existence of the existing physical barrier, which was put in place to save lives, amounts to arguing against the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state.]

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

ZOA Calls on PM Olmert To Demand Apology From Abbas For Honoring Deceased Terrorist Leader George Habash

News Release
Zionist Organization of America
Jacob & Libby Goodman ZOA House, 4 East 34th Street, New York, N.Y. 10016
(212) 481-1500 Fax: (212) 481-1515
www.zoa.org

January 28, 2008
Contact Morton A. Klein at: 212-481-1500

Israeli Arab MKs praise Habash and attend his funeral

Zoa Calls On Pm Olmert To Demand Apology From Abbas For Honoring Deceased Terrorist Leader George Habash

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called upon Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to demand an apology from Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas for honoring George Habash, the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), by declaring a three-day period of mourning and praising him as an "historic leader" (USA Today, January 26, 2008) \www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-01-26-obit-habash_N.htm.

In a letter signed by National President Morton A. Klein, Chairman of the Board Dr. Michael Goldblatt, Chairman of Executive Committee Dr. Alan Mazurek, Treasurer Henry Schwartz and Executive Director Stanley Kessock, the ZOA has urged Prime Minister Olmert to demand "as a condition of all future negotiations with Abbas' PA, that Mahmoud Abbas apologize to Israel for blatantly honoring a veteran Palestinian terrorist leader and head of an organization which to this day is openly committed to destroying Israel as a Jewish state and who had on his hands the blood of hundreds of innocent Jewish lives."

Habash, who founded the PFLP, died over the weekend in Jordan. The PFLP was the largest group after Fatah within the Palestine Liberation Organization, and carried out numerous terror attacks including the following:

  • 1968: Hijacking of El Al flight from Rome to Lod airport in Israel, diverted to Algiers, where 21 passengers and 11 crew members were held for 39 days.
  • 1968: Firing on an El Al passenger jet in Athens about to take off for New York, killing an Israeli mechanic.
  • 1969: Attack on El Al airliner at Zürich airport, killing the co-pilot and wounding the pilot.
  • 1969: Bombing of a Jerusalem supermarket, killing two Israelis and wounding twenty others.
  • 1969: Hijacking of a TWA flight from Los Angeles to Damascus by a PFLP cell led by Leila Khaled. Two Israeli passengers were held for 44 days.
  • 1970: Attacks a bus containing El Al passengers at Munich airport, killing one passenger and wounding 11.
  • 1970: Bombs in mid-air a Swissair flight bound for Israel, killing all 47 people on board.
  • 1970: Hijacks four passenger aircraft from Pan Am, TWA and Swissair diverting them to Cairo and Zarqa, Jordan and then blowing them up in front of the world media.
  • 1972: PFLP terrorists massacre 27 Israelis, including Professor Aharon Katzir, at Israel's Lod (later Ben Gurion) Airport.
  • 1975: In as raid led by Carlos the Jackal, PFLP seizes the OPEC office in Vienna, taking 60 hostages before being flown to safety in the Arab world.
  • 1976: PFLP and Baader-Meinhof terrorists seize an Air France flight and hold its passengers and crew hostage at Entebbe, Uganda, until the latter are rescued by Israeli commandos.Seized OPEC leaders meeting in Vienna.
  • 1981: Abducted and threatened four American journalists in Beirut in 1981 (two from the New York Times, one from the Washington Post and one from Newsweek).
  • 2001: Murders Meir Lixenberg, councillor and head of security in four settlements, who was shot while travelling in his car.
  • 2001: PFLP terrorists assassinated Rehavam Ze'evi, Israeli Minister of Tourism.
  • 2001 Carries out suicide bombing in Karnei Shomron, killing three.
  • 2001: Carries out suicide bombing in a Netanya market, killing three.
  • 2003: Carries out a suicide bombing in the bus station at Geha Junction in Petah Tiqva, killing four.
  • 2004: Carries out a suicide bombing in the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv, killing three.


Previous statements by Mahmoud Abbas honoring and supporting terrorists:Israeli Arab Members of Knesset (MKs) Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al) and Jamal Zahalka (Balad) traveled to Amman with other members of Zahalka's party to attend Habash's funeral. Tibi praised Habash, saying, "He was one of the most prominent leaders of the PLO and always fought for independence." Zahalka also praised Habash, saying, "I did not know the man personally, but he was one of the most important Palestinian leaders in the 20th century" (Yediot Ahronot, January 27, 2008). www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3499489,00.html

MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union) condemned the two Arab MKs, saying, "Knesset Members who openly mourn and support one of the worst terrorists of our generation need to be thrown out of the Knesset" while MK Esterina Tartman (Yisrael Beiteinu) stated, "Israeli Arab MKs show contempt for the State of Israel; they believe in murder, in the destruction of the State of Israel and the obliteration of the Jewish People" (Israel National News, January 28, 2008) www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125064.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, "Unfortunately, this latest outrage committed by Mahmoud Abbas only underscores his complete unsuitability as a peace-partner for Israel. Self-evidently, he is not a moderate who is genuinely interested in reaching a peace agreement with Israel. We should not however be surprised that Abbas has shown his true hand by publicly proclaiming his admiration and respect for a veteran terrorist leader like George Habash. As the statements we have cited above show, Abbas has made statements honoring other terrorist leaders, including Hamas' Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. It is no surprise at all that Abbas' praise for Habash was also echoed by Hamas officials.

"The world, especially Israel and the United States, must ask what decent purpose is served by their praise, financial and diplomatic support for Mahmoud Abbas, who has praised a variety of Palestinian terrorist leaders who have Jewish blood dripping from their hands. It is clear that Abbas is but another Palestinian admirer, supporter, enabler and sympathizer of terrorism who wears a Western business suit."

"We also urge the Olmert government to start dealing with the problem of disloyal, seditious Arab MKs who openly side with the terrorists who murder Jews and to take all actions that are legally appropriate to address it. The issue of the extremism of the Israeli Arab politicians and organizations is something the ZOA has highlighted www.zoa.org/2007/08/a_shocking_disl.htm before because we believe the issue is being swept under the rug. This obscene attendance of Habash's funeral by MKs Tibi and Zahalka should be a wake-up call to all Israelis and to all who care for Israel."

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Condi Still Doesn't Get It

Remarks With Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith, M.P. After Their Meeting Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
January 28, 2008
Available in full at www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2008/01/99762.htm.

... QUESTION: Madame Secretary, do you support President Abbas' forces taking control of Gaza's breached border with Egypt as you indicated last week on your trip to Europe? And should the EU monitors return to try and calm the situation. …

SECRETARY RICE: Hi, Sue. Two unrelated questions, all right. On the matter of Gaza, first of all, let me say that I had a conversation last night with Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit of Egypt. We understand the complexity of that situation …

[There are complexities, but at heart the situation is relatively simple: Gaza is ruled by a terrorist gang which prefers lobbing Kassam missiles at kindergartens in Sederot to building a society in which its people can live normal lives.

By pretending it's more complicated, we make the situation far worse than it need be.]


… and want very much to see a resolution that would return order to that border. We are in discussions with all the parties about how to do that. I think that there are two very important elements that I would underscore. The first is that Hamas should of course do everything that it can to do what it has not yet done, which is to use whatever capacity it has to stop the rocket attacks against Israel, because that is one of the - that is the essential problem out of Gaza.

[Unfortunately, expecting Hamas to stop rocket attacks instead of launching them is unrealistic.]


Secondly, we have been very clear that there should be no humanitarian cost to the innocent people of Gaza who simply have the bad fortune to be in Gaza after Hamas launched its illegal coup against the legitimate institutions of the Palestinian Authority.

[The people in Gaza are not so innocent; they voted for Hamas, knowing full well for whom they were voting.]


We do support, as the Quartet did in its statement several weeks ago, the concept of a Palestinian Authority presence to begin to introduce some order to that border. There would be many details that would have to be worked out, and I can't comment on any specific detail because this is obviously a very complex - would be a very complex operation in itself. But we've said that in concept it should be supported and that parties should look to see if that might be one way to handle the situation.



[It's a little late. Even before Hamas destroyed the border, Egypt allowed and even facilitated the transfer of massive amounts of weapons, ammunition and explosives to the Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Even with determination, it would not be easy to undo the damage; ignoring the problem makes it even worse.

For the good not only of the Israelis, but of the Palestinian Arabs themselves, it's long past time to abandon a false evenhandedness and moral equivalency which treats the non-issue of Jews living in normal communities in disputed portions of their homeland with Arab terrorists murdering innocent people.]

UN S-G in Time Warp; Human Rights High Commissioner Endorses Bigotry

24 January 2008

Spokesperson's Noon Briefing
Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESPERSON FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Marie Okabe, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

[These are excerpts, along with along with bracketed comments. The full transcript may be found at www.un.org/News/briefings/docs//2008/db080124.doc.htm.]


Good afternoon.

**Secretary-General Addresses World Economic Forum

The Secretary-General this morning addressed the plenary session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, telling them that the challenge of securing safe and plentiful water for all is one of the most daunting challenges faced by the world today. He noted that the lack of water had contributed to poverty and tension around the world, from Darfur to the Occupied Palestinian Territory to Colombia.

[The Secretary-General is apparently caught in a time-warp, unaware that almost all the Palestinian Arabs in the disputed territories are living under their own government, run either by the extremist Hamas terrorists (in Gaza/Hamastan) or by the more moderate Fatah terrorists (in Judea and Samaria/West Bank).]




Prior to addressing the Forum, the Secretary-General met with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, with whom he discussed the implications of the Annapolis process and the developments in Gaza and the West Bank. The Secretary-General reiterated his call on Israel to refrain from actions that will harm the well-being of the general civilian population in Gaza.

[There is no need to ask Israel to avoid harming civilians; unfortunately, he forgot to address those whose raison d'etre is murdering civilians — Hamas.]


Later he met with Quartet envoy Tony Blair and discussed Palestinian capacity-building, the Paris donors’ conference and the importance of accelerating projects that donors had promised at Paris, and the situation in Gaza.

[What about the situation in Sederot?]




**Security Council

And the Security Council, here, held consultations this morning on the Middle East, as you know, to continue the discussions from yesterday afternoon about the text of a draft presidential statement concerning the recent events in Gaza.

** Gaza Humanitarian Update

According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN Special Coordinator’s Office in Jerusalem, 315,000 litres of industrial gas, 20,000 litres of benzene, 250,000 litres of diesel, and 200 tons of cooking gas went from Israel into Gaza today.

[Only Israel transfers supplies to its enemies.]


But there is still a shortage of benzene for hospital workers’ vehicles, so only three hospitals in Gaza are operating. The World Food Programme (WFP) was able to get some benzene today on the local commercial market, but that might only be enough to last them until the middle of next week.

WFP calls the situation in Gaza a “serious food crisis” and says that the access restrictions are causing them to run out of food. As a result, vulnerable people, such as the sick and elderly, received only partial rations yesterday. Meanwhile, tensions rose at a distribution point yesterday after supplies of chickpeas, sugar and salt ran out. In addition, new security checks are leading to a cost increase of nearly $50,000 extra per month for WFP operations in Gaza.

In terms of further updates, no UN trucks were permitted to cross into Gaza today. And Gaza’s power plant has been rationing supplies to avoid a crisis this weekend.

[That manufactured crisis is obviously no more, as there is unimpeded access between Egypt and Gaza. Indeed, one wonders why The United Nations, if it was really interested in the welfare of the Arabs living in Hamastan, wasn't transferring goods from Egypt into Gaza all along.]


**Human Rights Council

Earlier in Geneva today, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution in which it called for urgent international action to put an immediate end to Israel’s grave violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

[When has the discredited "Human Rights Council" adopted a resolution calling for urgent international action to put an immediate end to the Palestinian Authority's grave violations of the basic human rights of Israelis, particularly to live.]


The Human Rights Council also demanded that Israel immediately lift the siege it had imposed on Gaza, restore continued supply of fuel, food and medicine, and reopen the border crossings.

The result of the vote was 30 in favour and 1 against, with 15 abstentions.

The final text did not change from the draft version that we had in our office yesterday.

And there’s more information on this upstairs.

**Arab Charter on Human Rights

High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, meanwhile, today welcomed the entry into force of the Arab Charter on Human Rights. Regional systems of promotion and protection can further help strengthen the enjoyment of human rights. And the Arab Charter is an important step forward in this direction, she added.

And there’s more on that upstairs in the Spokesperson’s Office.

[Excerpts from that document are below. By endorsing it, Arbour endorses hatred and once again makes a farce of human rights.]




**Questions and Answers

Question: I’m very keenly aware that I’m asking something you likely do not know, but I’d like you to look this up, if possible. You mentioned there were three hospitals operating in Gaza. I take it that means … does that mean Gaza Strip or Gaza City?

Deputy Spokesperson: In Gaza.

Question: In Gaza City. How many hospitals are there total in Gaza? What is their total bed count? And, just for reference, what is the known population, as far as you know, of the City of Gaza? Also, you mentioned that you had some material on the Arab Charter on Human Rights. Do you in fact have the exact text of that Charter among that material?

Deputy Spokesperson: The Arab Charter on Human Rights was adopted by the Council of the League of Arab States on 15 September 1994, so I’m sure that it is up on the Human Rights website (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights).

And the questions about the statistics about how many hospitals and beds in Gaza, I’m sure that my colleagues upstairs probably have that, so we’ll follow up on that.

[The Deputy Spokesperson later added that there are some half-dozen hospitals in Gaza. All hospitals are functioning, though only three have received fuel today.]



Question: Regarding the resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council today on the situation in Gaza, which country voted against the resolution? Do you know if the United States or Israel attended the meeting?

Deputy Spokesperson: Canada was the one vote against, we’re told, and neither the US… You asked if the US or Israel…?

[There may be significant anti-Israel activity in Canada, but there is still some sanity in its government.]


Correspondent: Yes.

Deputy Spokesperson: Neither the US nor Israel participated.

Question: Yes. Which country voted against the resolution?

Deputy Spokesperson: Canada.

Question: Maybe I’m mistaken, but I believe that there is a law that if a [United Nations] body is handling a topic that it’s not duplicated elsewhere. At least from the time … like maybe 10, 12 years ago I remember that events or topics that were discussed in one organ not being paralleled in another place. So we have the Human Rights Council bringing up the situation with Israel and now the Security Council. Has there been a reform of the Charter?

[The United Nations has long had a de facto policy of ignoring both its rules and its mission when it comes to promoting the hatred of Israel.]


Deputy Spokesperson: It’s up to the members of these bodies to decide what they want to discuss.

Question: Is it possible to have a briefing on the Alliance of Civilizations Forum meeting in Madrid? We had already requested it.

Deputy Spokesperson: Oh, of course. We’ll certainly put in that request.

Question: I don’t know if this was raised, but there were several suggestions by Israeli officials in recent days since the breakdown of the barriers in Gaza, to re-route deliveries of humanitarian goods. Rather than go through the borders that Israel controls, they would go through the border crossing that Egypt controls. Is that a feasible solution, from UNRWA’s (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) and other UN agencies’ point of view?

Deputy Spokesperson: I have not heard anything from UNRWA on this, but we can certainly check into it for you.

[The Deputy Spokesperson later added that, under the current agreement between Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Israel, Rafah is not supposed to serve to import goods. In addition, no adequate infrastructure exists in Rafah to do so.]




---

Arab Charter on Huma Rights, adopted by the League of Arab States, reprinted in 18 Hum. Rts. L.J. 151 (1997).



[These are excerpts. The full text may be found at www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/arabhrcharter.html.]


Council of the League of Arab States, Cairo

Arab Charter on Human Rights

adopted on 15 September 1994 (not yet ratified as of 30 June 1997), full text (1), translated from Arabic (2)

" The Governments of the member States of the League of Arab States (3)

Preamble

Given the Arab nation's belief in human dignity since God honoured it by making the Arab World the cradle of religions and the birthplace of civilizations which confirmed its right to a life of dignity based on freedom, justice and peace,

Pursuant to the eternal principles of brotherhood and equality among all human beings which were firmly established by the Islamic Shari'a and the other divinely-revealed religions,

Being proud of the humanitarian values and principles which it firmly established in the course of its long history and which played a major role in disseminating centres of learning between the East and the West, thereby making it an international focal point for seekers of knowledge, culture and wisdom,

Conscious of the fact that the entire Arab World has always worked together to preserve its faith, believing in its unity, struggling to protect its freedom, defending the right of nations to self-determination and to safeguard their resources, believing in the rule of law and that every individual's enjoyment of freedom, justice and equality of opportunity is the yardstick by which the merits of any society are gauged,

Rejecting racism and zionism, which constitute a violation of human rights and pose a threat to world peace,

[That's an interesting exercise, given that rejecting Zionism is not technically racism, but it's certainly a close cousin.]


Acknowledging the close interrelationship between human rights and world peace,

Reaffirming the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the provisions of the United Nations International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (4)

In confirmation of all the above, have agreed as follows :

Part I

Article 1



(b) Racism, zionism, occupation and foreign domination pose a challenge to human dignity and constitute a fundamental obstacle to the realization of the basic rights of peoples. There is a need to condemn and endeavour to eliminate all such practices.

[There it is again, condemnation of the national liberation movement of the Jewish people — and now praised by the High Commissioner of Human Rights!]




Footnotes



(3) The 22 member States of the League of Arab States are : Jordan. United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Djibouti. Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic. Somalia. Iraq, Oman. Palestine, Qatar, Comoros, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, Yemen.

[Egypt and Jordan have peace treaties with Israel, yet adopted a document condemning the very existence of Israel.

As far as the Arab League is concerned, "Palestine" is already a state.


Most of the rest actually reads like a very idealistic, much as the constitution of the Former Soviet Union did.]

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Surprise: Mahmoud Abbas Promotes Terrorism Again

Abu Mazen/Mahmoud Abbas may be considered a "moderate," and in the extreme world of Palestinian Arab terrorism he is apparently on the less extreme end of the spectrum, but he obviously has never cut his ties to terrorism.

Besides being the chair of the half of the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah, he's also the leader of Fatah, the terrorist group which hasn't even pretended to amend its charter to accept the existence of Israel. (The PLO itself has claimed it was going to amend its charter, but never did, although it sometimes pretends it did.)

Fatah is also the parent group for the Tanzim and Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade

Abbas has now declared three days of mourning to "honor" George Habash, leader of the "Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine" (PFLP) when it hijacked an Air France plane, leading to the Entebbe raid. He was also responsible for the Achille Lauro hijacking and the murder of the wheelchair-bound American tourist Leon Klinghoffer, and countless other terrorist attacks.

Note the inaccurate reference to an alleged "mass expulsion committed by the Israeli army." The overwhelming majority of Arabs who fled in 1948 did so because of the violence of the war started by the invading Arab armies and because they were urged to by their leaders. Had the Arabs accepted the re-establishment of Israel on just a tiny portion of the land promised in the Balfour Declaration, there would not have been a single refugee.





Ma'an News Agency

PFLP founder George Habash, 1925-2008



Amman - Ma'an - George Habash, the founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a godfather of the Palestinian struggle, died of a heart attack on Saturday in the Jordanian capital, Amman, medical sources said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has declared three days of national mourning to honor Habash, who was known as "Al Hakim," the Wise Man.

Habash was born in Lydda, in Mandate Palestine in 1925 into a Greek Orthodox family. Like hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians, he became a refugee during the mass expulsion committed by the Israeli army in 1948.

He graduated from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1951 with a degree in medicine. With a focus on pediatrics, he went to work in Palestinian refugee camps in Amman. While at AUB he met Hilda Habash, a Palestinian from Jerusalem.

In in 1952 he co-founded the Arab Nationalist Movement, which later spun off into several parties in individual countries.

Wanted by the Jordanian regime for his political activities, he fled Amman in 1957 for Damascus, where he was imprisoned several times, also for political reasons.

After leaving Jordan, Habash shifted his focus from Pan-Arab to Palestinian issues. His view was that the Palestinians should embrace Marxist-Leninist revolution.

In December 1967 he founded, with Abu Ali Mustafa, the PFLP. He remained the Secretary General of the Organization until 2000. He was succeeded by Abu Ali Mustafa.

Putting the Tiger in Charge of the Cage

We have excerpts from two different articles relating to the amazing proposition of having the Ramallah half of the Palestinian Authority take over the Gaza crossings. We add some comments in brackets.





From Haaretz:

Barak: Israel considering letting PA handle Gaza crossings



By Ora Coren, Haaretz Correspondent

DAVOS - Israel could allow Gaza crossings to be opened under the security control of the Palestinian Authority, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said here Thursday.

"If the PA's security could be as effective as that of Jordan, Egypt, or even Syria, we would consider alleviating the situation [in the Gaza Strip] significantly," he said, adding: "We're not promising anything."

[Of course, if the Palestinian Authority hadn't smuggled in tons of weapons into Gaza before the Hamas coup, or had even minimally lived up to some of its commitments, the situation would never had reached its current status.]


Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said this statement was a source of hope. "We must seriously consider Israel's security concerns. We are committed to non-violence and to solving the conflict by peaceful means," he said.

[Why, then, do Palestinian Authority newspapers, television and schools continue to incite against Israel? Why, then, does Fatah continue to engage in terrorism through its Al-Aksa Brigades and Tanzim subsidiaries?]


Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni would not commit to completing negotiations with the Palestinians by the end of the year, when President George W. Bush's term in office comes to an end. She said the agreement is not connected to the present American administration.

"I don't like working to a timetable because it leads to frustration and violence," she said.

[She can say that again.]


Livni said both sides want to solve the conflict and it takes time to do so properly.

[Certainly Israel wants to end the conflict, but even the supposedly "moderate" Abu Mazen has yet to demonstrate the willingness to end the conflict on any terms that would not effectively mean the end of Israel.




Livni said that before implementing the agreement certain changes must be made. "At this stage it does not appear possible to complete the agreement and throw a key over the fence, hoping someone on the other side catches it."

"We need an effective government that can rule, a proper administration, something that could change the situation and accept the key not only in the West Bank but in Gaza," she said.

[In 1993, Israel bowed to international pressure and recognized the PLO as the sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian Arabs. It's now clear that not only does the PLO not represent all the Palestinian Arabs, the Palestinian Arabs are inherently schizophrenic, with those living in Hamastan/Gaza having little in common with those living in the West Bank/Judea and Samaria. One may hope for one effective government in the Arab-controlled areas of the West Bank and Hamastan, but one may equally as effectively hope for the tooth fairy.]





From WAFA:

President Abbas: We are Ready to Take up Crossings to Ease Suffering of Our People



RAMALLAH, January 26, 2008 (WAFA - PLO news agency)-President Mahmoud Abbas confirmed that Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Palestinian and we will never give it up.

In a speech at a Palestinian National Conference on Jerusalem held Saturday in Ramallah, President said that the Jewish settlements, particularly what is built in Jerusalem, are illegal and we will never accept them.

"Whatever they do in Jerusalem and no matter what they do to change its structure, occupied Jerusalem will remain the capital of the state of Palestine and we will never give it up," he added.

[So much for any chance of any peace agreement with the supposedly "moderate" Abu Mazen. Jerusalem has never had much importance to either Arabs or Muslims, other when there are others around. While it was Israel's capital back in Biblical times, long before any of the ancestors of the present day Palestinian Arabs wandered by, it has never been the capital of the Palestinian Arabs. If they ever agree to peace with Israel, they may get some of the outlying areas of Jerusalem and call it their capital. But that's clearly not what Abbas is referring to.

Imagine the crescendo of criticism Israel would get if its prime minister said the equivalent, that all the Arab settlements in Jerusalem were illegal and Israel would never accept them.]


President accused Israel of seeking to change facts on the ground in East Jerusalem to preempt permanent status talks with Israel that include negotiations over the eastern section of the city occupied in 1967.

[The only proper issue to negotiate is the location of the Palestinian Arab embassy in Israel's capital.]


As for the crossings, President said we are ready to take up the crossings to ease the suffering of our people, calling on Israeli government to end the siege imposed on Gaza.

[What siege? Hundreds of thousands of the residents of Hamastan have crossed back and forth into Egypt in the last few days. This only highlights the always overlooked fact that Hamastan borders not only on Israel but on Egypt, which has again shown it is perfectly willing to ignore any agreements it makes with Israel.

Hamastan is effectively at war with Israel, relieving Israel of any responsibility it might have had. Let Egypt help Hamastan.]


"The long Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip," said Abbas, "has caused a popular explosion. When you deny the people fuel, medicine and all their basic needs, what should they do? The people have no choice but to explode."

[See above. Also note that Israel did not deny any of those items to Hamastan, even continuing to supply electric power to Gaza when it temporarily suspended the transfer of other items. Anything Israel does to prevent the transfer of goods to Hamastan would be useless unless Egypt was doing the same. Why isn't Abu Mazen whining about Egypt?]


President confirmed that the Islamic movement was part of the Palestinian people, demanding that Hamas give up control of crossing points into Gaza Strip to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) as well as give up its control of salient entirely.

[Had Mahmoud Abbas adhered to his commitments under prior agreements to Israel, or even not refused to adhere to any of his commitments under the roadmap, Hamas would never have taken over the Gaza Strip.

It's amazing that even the chairman of the Palestinian Authority continues to be blind to the reality that Israel is the only party in the Middle East that has ever worked to improve the lot of the Palestinian Arabs.]

Wrong Emphasis in the Connecticut Post

This letter was sent to The Connecticut Post by David Basch, a member of the PRIMER Board of Directors. Letters to The Connecticut Post are emailed to either edit@ctpost.com or to the editor, Steve Winters.




Dear Editor:

The Connecticut Post editors regularly disappoint as they did today in another photograph today that highlights the suffering of Palestinian Arab children in Gaza that was brought about by the Palestinian Arab leadership. The latter is a fact not mentioned in these sympathetic articles. But if the barbarous rockets aimed at Israeli civilians coming from Gaza would cease, there need not be such suffering.

The choice of the Post editors to distort events and highlight only Arab children as victims and not bell the cat on Arab aggression that brings this about is hardly fair and balanced journalism. Where are at the photos of Jewish children scurrying into bomb shelters?

Similarly, there is no sympathy expressed in the Post for the suffering of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier, kidnapped and long held prisoner by the Arabs with no contact allowed with the Red Cross or any neutral authority to confirm whether he is treated decently as a prisoner of war. This kind of inhumane treatment of Israeli prisoners is another reflection of the savagery that is the Arab standard.

I think it occurs because the Arabs believe they can depend on the selective reporting of newspapers like the Post, which only have eyes for the suffering of Arabs brought about by their own leaders -- regularly unmentioned. Our public ought to know the truth about this, not cover ups.

Yours truly,
David Basch

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Illusions About Holocaust Deniers

The following is excerpted from a Reuters article as published in The Toronto Star. The thesis is that if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum, he would alter his belief the Holocaust never happened.

The problem with that is the dubious assumption Ahmadinejad doesn't think the Holocaust happened.

Ahmadinejad is not a stupid person; I find it very hard to believe he doesn't know the truth; he's just evil and uses Holocaust denial as a convenient tool for spreading hatred of Jews.




Truth So Stark Even Deniers Would See It



JERUSALEM–They should persuade Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, to visit this city and to take a stroll through a large triangular concrete structure that knifes its way through the Mount of Remembrance in the pine-forested hills of western Jerusalem.

The building is Israel's hauntingly magnificent Holocaust Museum, designed by Canadian-Israeli architect Moshe Safdie and opened in 2005 – a powerful exploration of a bleak and shameful subject.

You need a good three hours to make a careful tour of the exhibits, but Ahmadinejad should be able to spare that much time from his presidential duties, and it would be well worth his while.

True, the experience might not alter his hostile attitude toward Israel. But one thing is sure.

No one, not even the president of Iran, could tour the museum at Yad Vashem and yet remain under any illusion that the Holocaust – the systematic murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis during World War II – is not an historical fact.

Granted, there are not a great many people nowadays who take this view, but Ahmadinejad is certainly among them.

Give the man a few hours of solemn contemplation here, and it is difficult to imagine he would not change his mind.



The penultimate exhibit in the museum is the justly famous Hall of Names, a vast circular library surrounding an illuminated dome. Here, the names and biographical details of some 3 million Holocaust victims are recorded in hundreds of indexed volumes.

But many of the shelves remain empty, for there are roughly 3 million more names to be identified and remembered.

Finally, in a dark room, a simple film repeats itself endlessly, thousands of pulsating letters that spell out a series of reflections penned by the famous or the unsung.

Wrote one woman, identified only as Hulda:

My dearest loved ones, We are all seized with an overwhelming desire to write letters before we die.

I can well imagine this to be so, and I imagine Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would believe it, too, along with many other things, if he would spend a few hours here.

Future Fatah Terrorists Begin Training

Palestinian Forces Enter Jordan under U.S. Training Program



Adam Entous (Reuters)

The first battalion of nearly 700 U.S.-screened Palestinian recruits crossed into Jordan on Thursday to begin what officials called "law and order" training under a U.S. program projected to graduate 2,000 men in 2008.

The eventual plan is for a nearly 50,000-member PA gendarmerie in the West Bank.



Abbas's government has launched a security crackdown in parts of the West Bank but say Israeli raids are hurting the effort. Israel has also prevented equipment like body amour and new armored vehicles from reaching Abbas's men.




Our American government never seems to learn. Every group of Palestinian Arabs we've tried training so far has used that training to better murder civilians, yet we keep trying.

The only real question is how many of those being trained will stay with the Tanzim, Al-Aksa Brigades and other Fatah terrorist groups and how many will wind up with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other non-Fatah terrorist groups.

It's also revealing that, even as we train more terrorists for him, Abu Mazen continues to blame Israel for the continued activity emanating from the terrorist infrastructure under the aegis of the Palestinian Authority.

More Evidence All Hamas Claims of a Humanitarian Crisis Were Nonsense

This article, by Amira Hass, who generally favors Arab terrorists over her own people whom they are trying to destroy, again demonstrates that Hamas has been orchestrating not only the rocket attacks against Israeli civilians but the misery of its own people.

It was long preparing the destruction of the wall separating Gaza from Egypt, waiting for an optimal time for a propaganda bonanza.

Just as it has had no difficulty smuggling in from Egypt whatever weapons of death it wanted, it could have brought in whatever supplies its people needed.





Gaza source: Hamas planned border wall blast for months



By Amira Hass, Haaretz Correspondent

Hamas operatives had been sawing away the foundations of the wall between Egyptian and Palestinian Rafah for a few months to make it easier to blow it up when the time came, a source close to the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in Rafah told Haaretz Wednesday.

[They just waited until they felt like it. Meanwhile, while they also bombarded Sederot with thousands of Kassams, the world blamed Israel for taking minimal steps to protect its people.]


A central Hamas operative partially confirmed the report, although he told Haaretz it was PRC operatives who had prepared to breach the wall, while Hamas policemen did not interfere.

In any case, Hamas has for months been discussing the need to take the initiative in ending the siege of Gaza. Apparently, after four days of hermetic closure, following months of siege, the planners believed the political and social conditions were ripe to bring down the iron wall that Israel had put up.

Wednesday around 3 A.M., the people of Rafah were awakened by a series of blasts  between 15 and 20, people said. The hospital in Rafah was put on advance alert to prepare for those who might be injured by Egyptian bullets.

[There would never, of course, be any complaints about the unnecessary use of lethal force by Egypt.]


People started heading toward the blast sites, but a source who knew about the plan ahead of time told Haaretz Hamas men prevented them from going over to the Egyptian side before sunrise. At 6 A.M., the first people started to cross over to Egypt, and their numbers steadily increased. The market on the Egyptian side of Rafah opened early in honor of the visitors.



Some stayed overnight in Egypt, although most went for a few hours. When they returned, Hamas police checked their belongings, especially people carrying large cartons, looking for drugs and weapons. Butheyneh, who did not buy anything, saw hashish in someone's belongings. He was immediately arrested. Rumor had it that Fatah men had weapons, and they were immediately confiscated.

[We may never know how much weaponry and explosive material has been brought into Gaza the last few days, but we can be sure many people will suffer the consequences.]

Treat Arab and Jewish Construction Equally

The following press release from Uri Ariel brings to mind the artificial evenhandedness in the roadmap as well as the absurdity of the demands to restrict Jews from residing in portions of the disputed territories and the pandering to those demands.

If the Arabs were interested in peace, there would be no reason why Jews couldn't live in the portions of the currently disputed territories that were given to the Palestinian Arabs, just as Arabs have been living as citizens of Israel.

It's often falsely claimed that settlements are an impediment to peace; the truth is it is those very claims which are impediments to peace.

Until that apparently far-off time when the Arabs choose peace, Israel should neither apply nor be held to a double standard. Just as it regulates building by Jews in the portions of the disputed territories it administers, it should regulate building by Arabs. It should not be forced to restrict building by Jews while building by Arabs is proceeding on a large scale.





House for House; Law for Law

Press Release - MK Uri Ariel

22 January 2008

[Translation by IMRA]

MK Uri Ariel, Chairman of the National Union-NRP Knesset faction, recently submitted a parliamentary question to Minister of Defense Ehud Barak which included detailed aerial photographs of scores of illegal building erected by Arabs in the area of Judea and Samaria. All the buildings were erected in Area C under full Israeli authority such that all construction there required a permit from the authorities. All the Palestinian structures identified in the parliamentary question are adjacent to Israeli outposts against which demolition orders have been issued.

The information reached Ariel from the Movement to Preserve National Lands that deals in monitoring threatening takeovers of State land in the entire country. The movement has coordinators in the Galilee, Samaria, Sharon, Judea and Negev who carry out ongoing monitoring via sophisticated equipment and matching information with official state authorities regarding the take over of public lands by private elements.

MK Ariel emphasized that the fact in the very same area demolition orders were issued against building by Jews, for which permits had not yet completed, while almost completely ignoring Palestinian construction that is certainly illegal is revolting. "There is not even a façade of law and justice on the part of the prime minster in the matter of the outposts. The clear and broad discrimination that he carries out against the residents of the outposts is invalid from a legal, moral and human standpoint. Law and Order are not his concern but instead political and narrow self interests. The real contempt is the ignoring of tens of illegal thousands of Arab and Bedouin homes and the failure of the authorities to deal with them," notes MK Ariel.

The Movement for the Preservation of National Land recently issued a detailed file of the extent of illegal Arab construction in Judea and Samaria with an emphasis on those that are near the outposts - against which demolition orders have been issued. It turns out that the Civil Authority has opened files against less than 20 percent of the illegal Arab construction in Area C at the same time that there are more than 40 thousand illegal buildings.

Surprise: The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Distorts Facts

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the anti-Israel hate group set up as a funhouse type, distorted mirror image trying to make people believe it was doing for Arabs what the respected Anti-Defamation League does for everyone, was incensed that the Washington Post published an editorial which, in its opinion, was insufficiently biased against Israel.

It reacted by distributing the following distortion-filled press release, shown below with some comments added in brackets.




Washington Post Editorial Distorts the Facts About Gaza

Washington, DC | January 25, 2008 | www.adc.org | The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is deeply disturbed by the Jan 24 Editorial by the Washington Post about the situation in Gaza. ADC encourages you to write to the Washington Post about their distorted editorial. Below you will find a letter sent to the Post by ADC, you can send your letters to letters@washpost.com.

[We recommend writing a letter to the Washington Post praising them for, this once, not pandering to hate groups like the one which would more accurately be called the American Arab Discrimination Committee.]


LETTER FROM ADC TO THE WASHINGTON POST

The author(s) of Jan 24 editorial by the Washington Post claim that "no one is starving in Gaza." Apparently, the Post did not consult the latest reports by the World Food Programme and the UN Relief and Works Agency which call for immediate aid to be sent to the impoverished Gaza Strip to "urgently prevent a humanitarian crisis."

[The very report cited contradicts the ADC's claim. The report did not urge aid be sent to end a crisis, but to prevent a crisis; ergo, there is no crisis; nobody is starving.]


Basic research by the Washington Post would have also found that 79 percent of the 1.5 million Gazans live in poverty and approximately 70 percent of the Gazans live on less than 250 dollars a month and food purchases account for 60 percent of household expenditures (World Food Programme, Jan 11, 2008).

[The actions of the Palestinian Authority and, since its coup, Hamas, have indeed created a horrendous situation for the Arabs living in both the West Bank and Gaza.

If the ADC was really interested in their situation, it would call for the replacement of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas by an international authority to undo the damage and try to create a civil society.]


The Post also fails to mention that despite Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel continues to have complete control over Gaza's land, sea, and air borders; utilities; tax revenue; and internal economy, making it an occupying power.

[If it wasn't obvious before, the events of the last few days have made the absurdity of this claim obvious to all.]


The editorial goes on to call for Egypt to close the border and to turn back the Gazans. Under humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, Gazans must be allowed access to humanitarian aid and supplies.

[It's too bad the Palestinian Arabs keep attacking the very people who have been trying to ensure that flow of humanitarian aid and supplies, the Israelis. Besides launching thousands of Kassams and mortars at civilians, Hamas has repeatedly attacked the crossings through which aid would have to pass and has even tried to destroy the power plants used to supply much electricity to Gaza.]


Gazans should not be forced to go without food or medicine nor be forced to live under constant collective punishment. An end to the misery inflicted by the ongoing Israeli occupation should be the goal for all, however, the Washington Post seems to favor halting the peace process instead. Shame on the Post.

[Shame on anyone who falls for this, or any other, malicious propaganda spewed by the ADC.]

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Al-Awda on Gaza

This press release was sent out by Al-Awda, an organization whose very name is code for the elimination of the state of Israel.

Al-Awda's fanatics actually criticized Yassir Arafat for being to moderate!

We intersperse some comments, but post this here mostly because it can be useful to gain some insight into the fanaticism of the Israel-haters.


For Immediate Release
January 20, 2008

BREAK THE SILENCE ON GAZA! DON'T DELAY! TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!

[Time is of the essence to end the bombardment of countless Kassams and mortars against the innocent civilians living in Sederot.]


Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, calls on its chapters, supporting organizations and individuals to organize to break the silence about the ongoing Israeli war crimes being committed against Palestinians in Gaza. Organize street actions and protests, community meetings and delegations to religious leaders and educators. Call and write the media and your congressional representatives.

[Al-Awda considers it a war crime for Israel to not freely provide Arab terrorists with the weapons of war.]


People of the world watch in horror as the racist state of 'Israel', with the support and encouragement of the US government, engages in a genocidal project to eliminate the indigenous Arab people of Palestine.

[This is interesting news. The Israelis must be totally incompetent, since the Arab population, which is not indigenous and long post-dates the Jewish kingdoms in what was renamed Palestine in an early endeavor in ethnic cleansing, has been booming.]


The world community has denounced the government of 'Israel' for using its military for the purpose of collectively punishing the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, a clear war crime and violation of the 4th Geneva Conventions. The only power plant in Gaza was shut down today leaving the 1.5 million inhabitants without electricity, water, or any functional medical facilities.

[Al-Awda is apparently ignorant of the fact that it was Hamas which operated the power plant and which shut it down despite ample supplies of fuel.

Israel has continued to supply electric power to the Gaza Strip.]


Palestinians continue to endure starvation, aerial bombings, US CIA interventions, and Israeli army brutality. This murderous endeavor has caused the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians and the already fragile economy of Gaza has been decimated.

[The economy of Gaza has been crumbling ever since the intifada of the late 1980's put an end to the economic expansion that coincided with Israel's post-1967 administration of the Gaza Strip. That destruction of the Gaza economy speeded up with the imposition of the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords, with the devastation accelerated again by the Hamas coup.]


NO FOOD, NO WATER, NO BREAD!

We appeal to all people living in the US:

SPEAK OUT TO DEMAND ONCE AND FOR ALL AN END TO THE SIEGE OF GAZA AND THE OCCUPATION OF ALL OF PALESTINE!

ORGANIZE STREET ACTIONS AND PROTESTS, CALL AND WRITE THE MEDIA AND YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES.

ORGANIZE COMMUNITY MEETINGS AND DELEGATIONS TO RELIGIOUS LEADERS AND EDUCATORS

DONATE TO HELP THE PEOPLE IN GAZA!

[It's very difficult to help people who refuse to help themselves. As long as the Arabs living in Gaza prefer killing Jews to living productive lives, it will be virtually impossible to help them.]


For information to contact your congressional representatives, go to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home.

For writing to the media, go to http://newslink.org for contact information.

To make a donation to help the people in the Gaza Strip go to http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and simply follow the instructions. Please indicate that your donation is for the GAZA EMERGENCY FUND.

[It would be more productive to support the innocent people in Sederot who are suffering from the Kassams and mortars launched by terrorists in Gaza.]


BREAK THE SILENCE ON GAZA! DON'T DELAY! TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352 Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243 Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is the largest network of grassroots activists and students dedicated to Palestinian human rights. We are a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3) organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations to PRRC are tax-deductible. To make a donation simply go to http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and simply follow the instructions.

[The IRS obviously hasn't paid attention to Al-Awda.]


Save the Date!
Sixth Annual International Al Awda Convention On The Sixtieth Year of Al Nakba
Anaheim, California
May 16-18, 2008
http://al-awda.org

[Again we see it's not the so-called "occupation" which is the issue; it's the very existence of Israel, a non-Muslim, non-Arab, free and Western-oriented liberal democracy in the Middle East.]

Monday, January 21, 2008

The Russian Bear Never Learns

One would think Russia would have learned from the way its support for terrorist organizations during the Cold War eventually backfired, with terrorism later being used as a weapon against both the Former Soviet Union and against Russia.

Foolishly, apparently believing Iran can be helpful in creating problems for the United States, Russia today is helping the repressive, revanchist mullahs in Iran develop an Islamic bomb.

This news comes from the Iranian Islamic Republic News Agency.

Iran took delivery of the fourth shipment of fuel from Russia for Bushehr power plant on Sunday

Tehran, Jan 20, IRNA - Iran news agency

Iran took delivery of the fourth shipment of fuel from Russia for Bushehr power plant on Sunday.

Iran Atomic Energy Production and Development Company said that it took delivery of 11 tons of fuel on Sunday morning and forwarded it to Bushehr.

It said that the remaining part of fuel will be shipped to Iran in four times according to a timetable.

IAEPDC said that Bushehr power plant needs 85 tons of fuel for primary stage of commissioning.

Russia has undertaken to commission Bushehr power plant in 2008 after unwarranted delays.

Arabs Misdirect Protest

Hundreds of Arabs upset about the way Hamas cut off power to areas of the Gaza Strip gathered in Israel's capital in a show of solidarity with their brethren in Gaza. Unfortunately, instead of directing their anger at those responsible, they protested against Israel.

According to a story in Yediot Aharonot:

The protesters lit candles, held up PLO flags and chanted slogans against the closure. Some shouted, "With our spirit and our blood we shall redeem you, Gaza," and "Allahu Akbar," and called on the Strip's residents to stay strong and fight for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.



One Palestinian woman who attended the march told Ynet that the Palestinians should unite against "the cruel siege on the Gaza Strip" and fight the occupation together.

Another young protester said, "I'm a Fatah member, but there's no difference between Fatah and Hamas on this issue. The sick and the old who are suffering from the blackouts don't care about the political conflict, they just want to live."

Most of the businesses and shops in east Jerusalem remained closed Monday, as a show of solidarity with Gaza's residents.


Unfortunately, the Arabs in Gaza elected a terrorist group which isn't interested in their living but is interested in Jews dying. They are also perfectly willing to send the Arabs in Gaza into darkness just to make propaganda points and make sure they have fuel for their terrorist infrastructure, which takes precedence over the lives of the Arabs in Gaza.

As far as the businesses and shops in "east" Jerusalem, perhaps they were just showing solidarity with Americans commemorating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., a great man who both opposed violence (the staple of the Palestinian Arabs) and recognized that anti-Zionism is a form of anti-Semitism.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Food for Thought by Steven Shamrak

Note: Steven Shamrak has been publishing an independent editorial letter since Augest 1981 in order to educate and inspire people worldwide about Jewish-Zionist prospective on Arab-Israel conflict. He requests people visit www.shamrak.com. His website contains instructions for subscribing to his letters.


Jews have been told for almost 2 millennia that there is something wrong with us. We need time and new victories to change this belief, to shift from self-hate to self-respect and self-appreciation! Having a decent leadership and clear National goal would help.

Olmert's Non-committal War. "We don't seek to fight in the Gaza Strip," Olmert said, "but neither will we put up with these attacks. We will continue to target the terrorists with wisdom and boldness." Olmert stressed there is no magic formula for stopping every missile. (He just does not want to see or look for it! By fighting only the symptoms one cannot defeat disease!)

PA: No Agreements on 'Give and Take'. The Palestinian Authority cannot negotiate compromises with Israel and will cut off talks if the IDF does not halt its attacks on terrorists in Gaza and stop Jewish communities from being built, PA negotiator Saeb Erekat said Thursday. (No commitment to end terror attacks and recognise Israel! Since the signing the Oslo agreement Israel gives but the Arabs only take!)

Dead Terrorists – No Strategic Gain. MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) reacted to the news that the IDF has killed 1,000 terrorists in Gaza in the past two years by saying that this was only a limited achievement. "There is no strategic achievement here. There is a limited tactical effect on the other side." (With no goal for ending Arab occupation and re-unification of all Jewish land the conflict will flourish endlessly!)

Misguided Objective. President George W. Bush gave Israel the nod for its long-delayed military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (Why would Israel need permission to defend herself?) The US president, Israeli Prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas agreed that the Israeli operation's prime objective must be to purge the Gaza Strip of Hamas strength in order to hand it over to the PA. (…from one terrorist entity to another! This is a conspiracy to prolong the Arab-Israel conflict! Ending an occupation of Jewish land by Arabs is the only way to cease this conflict. Removal of all enemy population from Gaza would be a good first step of the new peace process.)

Quote of the Week:

"They (Jews) will no longer be uprooted from this land that I have given" - Prophet Amos. - Jewish Olmert and born again Christian president Bush do not know their own bible!

Stupidity of Inaction. The Israeli government told the court that it is unable to decide how to protect Sderot from rocket attacks at this time. Terrorists are using rockets with longer ranges, and more cities are coming under attack, officials explained, so whatever the government does in Sderot will set a precedent. The government cannot afford to provide protective shielding for larger cities. (The best protection for Sderot and other cities from Qassam and Katusha rockets would be re-unification of Gaza, cleared of its terror-infested Arab population, with Israel! For that politicians must have love for their own country, integrity and guts!)

Israeli Arabs – Enemy Within. An Israeli Arab group called Ahrar al-Jalil (Free People of the Galilee ) claims it attempted to bomb Jewish cars in Haifa and near the Harish Junction. The group said it would continue to attack Israelis within Israel 's 1948 borders.

Another 'Friendly' Gesture from Bush. The U.S. announced its intention to sell Saudi Arabia 900 JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munitions) laser-guided bombs. Israel has warned that if a fundamentalist rebellion takes place in Saudi Arabia, any technology it possesses could fall into the hands of terrorists.

Iranian-Made Rocket Hit. The origins of the rocket, which hit the Israeli town of Ashkelon on Jan. 3 was made in Iran. This is clear indication of ties between Gaza's militants and Iran's hard-line Islamic regime.

Hamas Creates Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza

One wonders what the United Nations, including John Dugard, will say about the humanitarian crisis Hamas is trying to create by shutting down Gaza's power plant. Amazingly, at the present time, if it was not for Israel, Gaza would have absolutely no electricity.

Most likely, the United Nations will find a way to blame Israel.


Hamas shuts down Gaza power plant



(From the Jerusalem Post)

Gaza City was plunged into darkness after nightfall Sunday when Hamas officials shut down the territory's only electricity plant, following a cutoff of fuel from Israel.

Israel blockaded Gaza Thursday as a pressure tactic against militants who have been firing rockets at Israel every day. The stricken power plant generates about one third of Gaza's electricity. The rest, which comes from Israel, was not affected by the blockade, Israeli officials said.

But Shlomo Dror, a spokesman for Israel's defense ministry, said Gaza has enough fuel to run the plant, and accused Palestinian officials of trying to create the impression of a crisis that did not exist.

[Yet Hamas is trying to create the impression of a crisis, inconveniencing its own people, in an attempt to win a propaganda victory. Once again, the Palestinian Arab leadership demonstrates it's far more interested in destroying Israel than in the welfare of its own people.]


Barak's decision came after Hamas renewed Kassam rocket fire last week, resulting in unusually heavy barrages on Sderot. The defense minister decided then to tighten the blockade on the Strip, saying that only humanitarian cases of an extreme nature would be considered.

In addition to the fuel it receives from Israel to power its electrical plant, Gaza gets about two-thirds of its electricity directly from Israel. Israeli officials said that supply would not be affected.

[Even as the people of Gaza pound Israelis with Kassams and mortar fire, Israel continues to do more for them than their own leaders.]


The UN organization in charge of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, warned the move would drastically affect hospitals, sewage treatment plants and water facilities.

"The logic of this defies basic humanitarian standards," said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency.

[A rare moment of truth for the United Nations.]


Cabinet minister Zeev Boim said that rather than condemning Israel's move, the UN should condemn Palestinian terrorists for subjecting Israeli civilians to barrages of rockets. "I don't hear the UN's voice," Boim said.

The Nahal Oz fuel terminal in Israel that supplies Gaza remained closed Sunday because of the Palestinian rocket fire, defense ministry spokesman Dror said. But there was still fuel in Gaza, and the closure would not lead to a crisis, he said.

"If they shut it down, it's not because of a fuel shortage, but because they want to create the impression of a crisis," Dror said. The power plant shutdown, he said, would "not be comfortable, but it's not a humanitarian crisis."

Despite the damage the sanctions were causing Gaza's population, Hamas said its attacks on Israel would not cease.

"We will not raise the white flag, and we will not surrender," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

[Translation: Israel may have given us Gaza, but we still want to destroy Israel and don't care whether we destroy our own people in the process.]

Responding to Screeds: A Case Study

This is a long entry, but it provides a case study in responding to biased, misleading, anti-Israel screeds in newspapers.

Included below are screeds by Jamilah Rasheed and Mazin Qumsiyeh, published in The New Haven Register January 8 and January 10, 2008, an op-ed drafted by Ed Berns and submitted to The New Haven Register, and a much condensed version of Berns' op-ed, finally published by The New Haven Register as a letter on January 19.

In addition to being an example of an excellent response to the screeds, the publication of the letter demonstrates the importance of perseverance and contacting those responsible for the editorial page if a letter or op-ed is not immediately accepted.

The four items are in reverse order.




Published January 19:

Pity party for Arabs must end

The Register published recently two pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel Forum pieces in the span of three days.

One indicted Israel and the United States "because of disdain for Muslims and Islam" resulting from the mistrial in the terrorism case against The Holy Land Foundation. Indignantly, the author said millions of dollars raised by the foundation provided financial assistance only for orphans and widows.

This is a different world since Sept. 11. The United States identified the foundation as a terrorist organization that masquerades as a charity, with its primary purpose to fund Hamas. Although a federal jury deadlocked, it does not mean the defendants were acquitted. Federal prosecutors have indicated they will likely retry the case. To argue that a failed prosecution equates to "maligning Islam and Muslims" is to utterly fail to appreciate that this nation embraces all religions.

Notably, the founder, president and treasurer of another Islamic charity, Care International Inc., were convicted of duping the government into awarding it tax-exempt status by hiding the group's pro-jihad status. They were found guilty by a federal jury. The mission of that fund also was to help orphans and widows.

The other piece declared President Bush's Middle East trip "form over substance." The piece was less about American intent to broker peace than it was the writer's oft-repeated litany of big, bad, Israel and the injustice-suffering native people. If anything, it epitomized form over substance.

These writers always paint Israelis as the bad guys. I must have missed where they condemned the drive-by shooting recently of two young Israeli hikers by gunmen affiliated with the Palestinian Authority. I must have missed where they denounced the daily Palestinian rocket attacks. And I must have missed where they urged the Palestinians to repudiate the horror of homicide bombings.

It's time to put a stop to this one-sided Palestinian pity party and bring some balance to the table.

Edward J. Berns
North Haven




The original op-ed as it was submitted:

Last week was an exceptional week for the New Haven Register in its on-going anti-Israel agenda. How else could it justify publishing not one, but two, pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel pieces under its Forum banner in the span of two days?

First, on January 8th,the Register published the piece by the coordinator of the Connecticut Islamic Speakers Bureau indicting not only Israel but the U.S. as being against Islamic charity because of disdain for Muslims and Islam an argument solely arising from the mistrial declared in the government's terrorism case against The Holy Land Foundation. Indignantly, the author recited that the millions of dollars raised by the HLF provided financial assistance only for orphans and widows who had been systematically terrorized by the Israeli government.

A response to this patently fallacious if not downright ridiculous argument is required. We all know this is a different world since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. As part of its response to those events, the U.S. has identified HLF as an organization that masquerades as a charity with its primary purpose to fund Hamas, identified by the government as a terrorist organization. When shut down by the U.S. , Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill declared it one of a number of Hamas-controlled organizations that finance terror. Although a federal jury declared itself deadlocked it is important to recognize the HLF defendants were not acquitted. In fact, federal prosecutors have indicated they will likely retry the case. For the writer to posit that a failed prosecution equates to maligning Islam and Muslims is to utterly fail to appreciate that this nation embraces all religions and irresponsible repudiation of the fundamental tenet of American justice that all are equal before the law.

To further undermine the writer's thesis, if any is necessary, just last week the leaders of another Islamic charity, Care International Inc., were convicted of duping the government into awarding it tax-exempt status by hiding the group's pro-jihad status. After a two-month trial the organization's founder, president, and treasurer were found guilty by a federal jury on virtually all counts. Is anyone surprised that the stated mission of that fund, too, was to help orphans and widows?

Like the result in the HLF case or not, it is an example of the inherent fairness of American jurisprudence. Jurisprudence, it is fair to add, that is singularly distinctive from the Muslim system of justice, sharia, examples of which we have seen demonstrated viciously in recent weeks. A volunteer teacher from the UK in Sudan was imprisoned for allowing the children of her class to name a teddy bear Mohammad. A 19 year-old Saudi woman who was a victim of a gang rape was sentenced to six months in jail and 200 lashes because she was with an unrelated male when she was attacked. And, in Iran this week, the amputation of the right hand and left foot of five convicted criminals. These writers should give thanks every day that they live in America ; the same America they rail against. Would the sharia system permit, if not actually encourage, anti-government freedom of speech? We all know the answer.

As if the first piece wasn't sufficiently irresponsible, on January 10th the Register published another of its regular cadre of Israel bashers in the Forum section. Professing to declare President Bush's Middle East trip as form over substance, the thrust of the piece is less about American intent to broker peace in the region than it is the writer's same old, tired, litany of big, bad, oppressive Israel and the injustice-suffering native people that the Register has published so many times before. If anything, it was this editorial that epitomized form over substance.

As always, these writers paint the Israelis solely as the bad guys. I must have missed the part where the writers denounce the daily rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. I must have missed the part where they urge the Palestinians to repudiate the horror of homicide bombings. I must have missed the part where they condemn the drive-by shooting recently of two young Israeli hikers by Palestinians (who, I might add, turned themselves in to the Palestinian Authority when they heard the Israelis were about to apprehend them). And, I must have missed, too, the writers advocating release of Israeli soldiers kidnapped and held for ransom in the name of the Palestinian cause.

To the writers who despise Israel so much I have some suggestions. I would remind them that they have many tangible ways to demonstrate their disdain 'Ä' and I encourage their strong consideration. For starters, they can haul out their old Underwoods to type their propaganda. Why? Because they'll need to unplug their computers and toss them out the window in protest of the fact that most of the Windows operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel. If that isn't sufficient reason, I'm sure they wouldn't be able to bear to use Pentium NMX Chip technology, the Pentium 4 microprocessor, and the Centrum processor all of which were entirely designed, developed, and produced in Israel . Imagine their frustration being trapped in a technological stone age knowing that in our contemporary, computer-dependent world they'll have the impossible task of avoiding Israeli technology. One last point, to add insult to injury, before they disconnect for good and give their microprocessors the old heave-ho is to know that the AOL Instant Messenger they use to chat with their friends was developed by young Israelis.

Similarly, the writers will want to start saving their quarters for when they travel. Why? Because they'll have no option but to use pay phones for their communication needs when on the road as cell phone technology was developed in Israel by Motorola. The company has its biggest development center in Israel . In fact, most of the latest technology in mobile phones was developed by Israeli scientists.

Finally, these writers should hope they don't fall ill, but if they do they shouldn't mind a longer recovery 'Ä' if at all. Why? Because Teva, an Israeli pharmaceutical company, is the largest generic drug maker in the world and likely the source of what would be their prescription medication. Speaking of health, I'm not sure they'll want to remember that two Israelis received the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research and discovery of one of the human cells most important cyclical processes that will lead the way to DNA repair, control of newly produced proteins, and immune defense systems.

Bottom line: Its time to put a stop to this tedious, unilateral pro-Palestinian pity party and bring some balance to the table.

Edward Berns
North Haven, CT




Qumsiyeh screed, published January 10:

FORUM

Bush trip a triumph of form over substance

Mazin B. Qumsiyeh

Mazin Qumsiyeh of Orange is a Christian Palestinian-American who served on the faculty of both Duke and Yale universities. He is author of "Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle." Readers may write him in care of the Register, 40 Sargent Drive, New Haven 06511. E-mail: qumsi001@hotmail.com.

PRESIDENT Bush's visit to the Middle East this week shows once and for all that status quo lives on under the attempt to validate the old saying that an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance. In this case, the image came seven years too late.

In public appearances, the Bush administration claims it supports the road map for peace. In 2,218 words, that map lacks any mention of human rights and international law.

But even with this shortcoming, it calls for a total freeze on settlement activities, including so-called "natural growth." Israel simply refuses to abide by this. Bush sent a letter to assure Israel that some settlements will be exempt, since they would stay with Israel under any final deal. In so doing, Bush undermined his own "road map." It is not surprising that U.S. policy evolved from describing settlements as illegal to "obstacles" to "unhelpful" and finally to Jewish neighborhoods that will remain part of the Jewish state.

The U.S. government's claimed interest in advancing democracy is recognized around the world as the biggest breeding ground for promoting dictators, violence and terrorism, whether that practiced by individuals or the more deadly state terrorism. For example, Hamas was elected in the occupied Palestinian areas in a vote this administration pushed for. Rather than pressuring Israel to comply with international law - an action that would have truly built up moderate forces in Palestine - Bush chose to pressure the Palestinian Authority to take Hamas on militarily and thus increase the already high antagonism to the United States and its client state of Israel.

Continuing in this policy, when Bush visits Ramallah to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the city will be under virtual martial law, according to instructions given to Palestinian police. Bush's security detail demanded no visible demonstrations. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, daughter of the terrorist who oversaw the bombing of the King David Hotel, will jovially agree with Bush on fighting "Islamic terrorism." Bush will look out from that same hotel to see a wall that the International Court of Justice ruled illegal.

Many of the U.S. officials accompanying Bush were handpicked from lobbyists and pundits who support Israel, so he will not hear the history of that hotel.

Considering the above, the photo opportunities in Jerusalem will not accomplish any more than they did in Annapolis, not even the hope of a changed policy after Bush leaves office. Thus, the decline in the U.S. ability to influence events around the world is becoming more visible. There is an obvious and more honest route to peace, security and economic prosperity for all: international law and human rights.

Israel is the only country that gives members of a particular religion, including converts, automatic rights (citizenship, land, homes, subsidies), while denying citizenship to native Christians and Muslims who were ethnically cleansed.

World leaders who are freed from the pressures of the Israel lobby have recognized this system for what it is: apartheid. Israelis use the word hafrada (segregation) to describe their program. Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote: "In our struggle for justice and peace in South Africa, we had to learn to speak and listen to hard truths. ... My visits to the Holy Land remind me so much of South Africa: apartheid is back, complete with the Separation Wall and Bantustans. History, it seems, repeats itself." A growing international movement of boycotts, divestment and sanctions coupled with truth-telling is building. It will succeed as did the cutting of U.S. support for apartheid South Africa.

Israel will then evolve into a democracy with equality for all - Jews, Christians, Muslims and others - that implements international law, including allowing the refugees to return to their homes and lands. This is the only way to allow a functioning Hebrew and Israeli culture to remain while remedying the injustice committed against the native people.




Screed written by Jamilah Rasheed, published January 8:

FORUM

Shutdown of Muslim charity hurts U.S. cause

By Jamilah Rasheed

Jamilah Rasheed of New Haven is coordinator of the Connecticut Islamic Speakers Bureau. Readers may write her at the New Haven Register. Her email address is in4truth@comcast.net.

ONE of the fundamentals of Islam is charity. It can be in the form of money, food, clothing or physical assistance.

Prophet Muhammad said even a smile is charity. An individual can contribute to any one person or organization that is meant to alleviate the hardship of those who unable to provide for themselves. Charity is characteristic of all faith-based organizations.

When the Bush administration decided to target Islamic charities, its aim was to shut them down, based on false claims of funding terrorism, because of disdain for Muslims and Islam.

The Holy Land Foundation was one such charity. It was founded in 1989 as the Occupied Land Fund. It had become the largest Islamic charity in the United States. Its main objective was "to find and implement practical solutions for human suffering through humanitarian programs that impact the lives of the disadvantaged, disinherited and displaced peoples suffering from man-made and natural disasters."

Its main recipients were hospitals, schools and food foundations in occupied Palestine. It attempted to offset the inhumane conditions that Palestinians had existed under since their occupation and brutal treatment by the Israeli government.

In 2001, it raised $57 million for the oppressed in the West Bank and Gaza. It was shut down by the Bush administration in December 2001 based on false claims that it was taking donations that were funneled into the hands of terrorists. In truth, the organization was providing financial assistance for orphans and widows who had been systematically terrorized by the Israeli government.

After Sept. 11, the assets of Holy Land Foundation were frozen. After an indictment was handed down in 2004 on 42 counts, the foundation went bankrupt in its effort to defend itself.

The trial on the charges began last July 23 in Dallas. The United States government became an agent for the Israeli government during this trial by bringing in a chief witness who was an Israeli Zionist Shin Bet counterterrorism official, testifying under the pseudonym "Avi." This is the same tactic that was used in the Sami Al-Arian case, in which foreign nationals are brought in as witnesses with emotional testimony for the sole purpose of swaying the jury with fear.

A mistrial was declared Oct. 22. The jury acquitted on some accounts and was deadlocked on the charges of tax violations and providing material support for terrorists. One Texas lawyer who observed the case, Matthew Orwig, said, "this is a message, a two by four in the middle of the forehead" for the government. Millions of tax money was spent to no avail.

It is the third case the government has lost against a Muslim or an Islamic organization.

Sami Al-Arian stills languishes in prison after being acquitted in 2006 of false claims that he helped finance terrorism in Palestine. He even agreed to leave the United States as part of his plea bargain. His work in the United States was to educate the American public about Islam and he spoke directly with then-candidate-for-president George W. Bush in 2000 about the government's use of secret evidence in deportation proceedings against terrorism susupects.

There has been a failed attempt on the part of this administration to justify its willingness to bankrupt this country by saying it is protecting America with its invasion and occupation of countries populated by Muslims. Instead of restricting the millions that are flowing for this unjust war, we succumb to attacking Islamic charities.

By maligning Islam and Muslims and viewing them as suspect in all that is wrong, we only strengthen the terrorism carried out by the state of Israel on the Palestinians, which in turn continues to impoverish those who are in need.