Christians For Fair Witness on the Middle East Denounces Methodist Divestment Proposals

Christians For Fair Witness on the Middle East Denounces Methodist Divestment Proposals

FORT WORTH, Texas, April 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United Methodist Church, the largest mainstream Protestant denomination in the U.S., is currently meeting in Ft. Worth, Texas where it will be voting on several resolutions for divestment from companies doing business in Israel.

Fair Witness is very concerned that divestment, which in other contexts has been a good and a powerful tool for social justice, is being used here as a weapon to unfairly target the Jewish state and greatly oversimplify the complex Arab/Israeli conflict.

The divestment resolutions that the Methodists are considering reflect a troubling bias on the part of certain factions within the denomination.

They focus on the alleged misdeeds of Israel and on Palestinian suffering, while virtually ignoring Israeli suffering and any culpability that the Palestinians and Arab nations have for the violence and discord in the region. They condemn the Israeli occupation, security barrier and settlements, but turn a blind eye to years of Arab aggression, Palestinian terrorism aimed at Israeli civilians and the recent non-stop Qassam rockets that have terrorized the southern Israeli town of Sderot. The resolutions also fail to acknowledge the Palestinian refusal to accept the Clinton peace parameters that would have ended the occupation in 2000/2001.

Invidious allegations of apartheid leveled by proponents of divestment at the Jewish state distract from factual realities on the ground in Israel/Palestine. Blame for the fact that some Palestinians still live as refugees lies squarely at the feet of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which instead of resettling the Arab refugees after 1948 (as the Jewish refugees at the time were resettled) maintains them to this day in camps on the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. The blame is surely shared by the Palestinian leadership for refusing the offer of a Palestinian state at Camp David and Taba.

Israel can be faulted for continuing a policy of settlement expansion.

However, Israeli leaders more than demonstrated their willingness to abandon those settlements in 2000 and 2001 when they accepted the Clinton parameters that would have created a Palestinian state on approximately 97% of the West Bank and all of Gaza. Israel demonstrated this willingness again in 2005 when it moved every one of 8,000 Israeli settlers out of Gaza.

The troubling aspects of the Methodist divestment proposals are compounded by the denomination's publication of material that appears to be strongly anti-Israel and perhaps anti-Semitic. In 2007 the Women's Division of the Methodist General Board of Global Ministries published "Israel-Palestine: A Mission Study" which is replete with factual errors, misrepresentations and distortions that serve to portray Israel as the sole villain in the Middle East. The "Mission Study" is filled with inflammatory references such as "religious racism... [as] inherent in some of the traditional writings and interpretations of Rabbinic Judaism..." and the founding of the Jewish state in terms of "original sin." These and similar references found throughout the "Mission Study" seem designed to portray Jews and Israelis in as damning a light as possible.

The "Mission Study" goes so far as to exploit Nazi Holocaust themes in the service of efforts to indict Israel. It employs a pseudo-psychological approach by inventing a "Holocaust consciousness" which it claims infects Israeli society with "attendant rage" and renders Israelis incapable of peacemaking. This attempt to exploit a tragic episode in Jewish collective life is not only un-Christian, it crosses the line of decency.

The Methodist "Mission Study" and the divestment proposals may be symptomatic of a strong bias to the point of antipathy. Instead of passing unbalanced resolutions, United Methodists should commit to taking a long and serious look at their attitude towards Israel and the Jewish people and try to find ways of becoming effective peace makers rather than merely condemning and attacking one side.

Please Do, Mr. Abu Mazen

Or, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

Primerprez admits he laughed out loud when he read this one.

According to a JTA report, the leader of the Palestinian Authority is threatening to boycott President Bush as punishment for helping to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of Israel's reestablishment.

Way to go, Abu!

George Bush has been called the best friend Israel ever had in the White House, but he's certainly done more for the Palestinian Arabs than any other president.

Jimmy Carter wants to do more for them, or at least he wants to help them hurt Israel, but he's so ineffective at doing anything other than wielding a hammer for Habitat for Humanity that he doesn't count.

It was George Bush who, in the midst of Arafat's terror war, broke with previous American policy and called for the establishment of another Palestinian Arab state.

It's been George Bush who has been pressuring Israel to negotiate on final status issues in conflict with his own road map, even while Abu Mazen/Abbas continues to insist he'll never adhere to his obligations under that road map.

Still, Abu Mazen threatens to boycott George Bush!

Let's hope he carries through with that threat, rather than chickening out under pressure the way he did recently when he was planning to honor the families of suicide terrorists.

After all, there has to be some line which will eventually make our American government realize appeasing "moderates" like Abu Mazen is counterproductive.

P.A. to shun Israel's celebrants

The Palestinian Authority threatened to boycott President Bush and foreign dignitaries who attend Israel's Independence Day celebrations.

Unnamed aides to Mahmoud Abbas told Reuters Monday that the P.A. president will consider as "temporarily" persona non grata the dozens of top foreign dignitaries who are expected to visit Israel for its 60th birthday bash next month.

Palestinians describe the 1948 founding of Israel to be their nakba, or "catastrophe," though a U.N. partition plan -- violently rejected by the Arabs at the time -- called for a Palestinian state to be created alongside the Jewish state.

Bush is widely expected to use his mid-May visit to push for progress in peace talks between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. It was not immediately clear how the United States would respond to the prospect of its president being boycotted by Abbas' administration in the West Bank.

[It's rather difficult to negotiate on behalf of someone whose boycotting you.]

Where Are the Arab Peace Organizations?

The following letter was submitted to The Gazette (in Colorado Springs) by Rabbi Mel Glazer, in response to a rationalizing Arab terrorism.

Golda Meir talked about peace coming when the Arabs start loving their children more than they hate Israelis.

Another signal will be when there are Arab groups interested in peace. (They don't have to be anywhere nearly as dovish as the Israeli groups mentioned; if they just approached the moderation of the fringe Israeli groups that get rightly ostracized for being racist it would be a giant step towards peace.)

Glazer's letter is followed by the letter to which it responds. Other responses have been published by The Gazette.

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In her recent letter "Israel not beacon of light in tumultuous region" (April 22, 2008), Eugenia Durland cites a number of Israeli-Palestinian peace organizations to prove her assumption that Israel has been a provocateur in its war of survival with Arab terrorists, and that Israel has received a "free pass" from America to take the actions she feels are necessary. She cites twelve of these peace groups. It is fascinating to me that eleven of the twelve are indigenous Israeli groups, whose organizers and leaders are Israelis who are concerned for peace. Only one of them is a Palestinian peace group.

What lessons can we learn from these numbers? Who cares more about bringing peace to the region? Where are the rest of the Palestinian peace-makers? Which Palestinians is Israel supposed to negotiate with, the few who call for peace, or the overwhelming majority who punctuate their continued refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state with missiles they lob over the border, which kill and wound innocent Israeli families?

We Jews have always been lovers and seekers after peace, and we will never ever change. But if I were the Israeli Prime Minister, I would simply wait until the Palestinians remember that being created in God's Image means that they have an obligation to live in peace with the rest of God's children, and to repair the world in which we live. Not to destroy it.  

As our Festival of Passover comes to an end, I pray for the day when we can leave our collective slaveries and join together to create a world of peace based on justice.

Rabbi Mel Glazer

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The letter to which it responds:

Mideast Unrest
Israel not beacon of light in tumultuous region

The Gazette's April 18 Our View, "Jimmy Carter's love of bullies," was appalling. The statements about Hamas, the wrongness of engaging in talks with Hamas leadership, and the free pass given Israel to behave in any way it wishes vis a vis Palestinians, are fraught with error and prejudice. I could refute them one by one, based on years of work in the area, but space is too limited.

Instead, I appeal directly to readers, most of whom I expect may have open minds or, if necessary, be willing to educate themselves on the fairness issue. To accomplish that purpose, I suggest readers access the Web sites of the following organizations, read and learn what the Israeli and Palestinian peace movements and much of the Israeli and Palestinian public believe:

Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) and Americans for Peace Now (the American support organization for Shalom Achshav), Rabbis for Human Rights, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions,, Bat Shalom, Jewish Voice for Peace, Jewish Peace Lobby, Jewish Voices Against the Occupation, Not In My Name, Palestine Monitor, Ta'ayush (network of Israeli Jewish and Arab activists), Yesh Gvul ("There's a Limit" - support group for Israeli soldiers who refuse to participate in acts of oppression and occupation.) This is by no means a complete list but provides a start for learning.

Members of these groups in Israel work and talk with members of Hamas, so why not an elder statesman from America? Hamas is a political party, as is Fatah. It's extremist faction is a minority. I do not condone violence of any kind. But knowing first-hand how brutal the 41-year-old Israeli military occupation of Palestinian ancestral land is, I understand from whence comes their rage. The final insult is that each such retaliatory act by a Palestinian is repaid 10 times over in Palestinians lives taken by Israeli military revenge.

Eugenia Durland
Colorado Springs

The Power of a Professor

This message was posted to the Jewish Faculty Roundtable by Judea Pearl. It reminds me of a flyer I post in my classroom: "Mathematics is Not a Spectator Sport." Neither is defending Israel against those trying to destroy it.

"A Simple Re-Action to an Anti-Israel Speech"
Judea Pearl judea@cs.ucla.edu

We have been hearing a lot about anti-Israel speeches, intimidation, isolation and a general sense of discomfort that Jewish students encounter on US campuses. Below is a simple action to counter this atmosphere, boost morale and help improve the posture of Jewish students on campus.

Israel will soon be celebrating its 60th birthday and, chances are, there will be some commemoration of this event on your campus.

My suggestion: *Be There,* say a few words from the stage, and let students know that, contrary to much amplified anti-Israel rhetoric from the reckless Left, there are principled and thoughtful faculty who cultivate pro-Israel sentiments, perhaps not as vocal and fashion-driven as their adversaries, yet calmly committed, rational and commonsensical.

The presence of even one faculty member on the stage will go a long way toward diffusing our students' sense of abandonment.

For a student, *you* represent the soul of the university; not the Hillel director, not the Rabbi, certainly not the Israeli Consul, or the musicians on the stage -- but you. It is you, with your lab coat, your stethoscope, a library book under your arm, or a bunch of graded homework in your briefcase, it is you and your professional dedication who mediates to students the norms of responsible society. Your action will mean a lot to students.

Don't wait for an official invitation; the organizers have probably given up on getting faculty to speak on such occasions, or are simply too busy to think of the importance of your presence. Call them up and offer your participation.

Alternatively, if you are somewhat adventurous, surprise them; be there, hop on the stage and say: "I am Professor XYZ from the department of ZXY. I was in the middle of a crucial experiment (or a book review, or meeting or whatever), but I could not resist being here, with you at this celebration, and to tell you what Israel means to me."

It is dignified, personal and honest.

Now imagine 20 professors on the stage, each approaching the microphone and saying: "I am Professor XYZ, I, too, could not sit idle in my cubical. Israel is in my thought today."

Be there.

The Difference Between Us and Them

This appeared in YNET. It gets to the heart of one of the key differences between the Israelis and the Palestinian Arabs:

Israeli terrorists - of whom there are extremely few - go to jail.

Palestinian Arab terrorists - of whom their are many - get soccer tournaments named in their honor.

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Uri Orbach explains why he does not intend to support calls to pardon Jews who murdered Arabs

Uri Orbach

Our 60th Independence Day is right around the corner, and some rabbis and council heads from Judea and Samaria communities are already calling for the release of Jewish security prisoners. After all, the celebrations are a time of forgiveness, and if we free Arab terrorists with blood on their hands, why don't we also free Jewish ones etc.

Even Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Shas joined the calls. After all, our prisoners have families and pregnant wives, and we know from past experience that Jews who are freed do not murder again - and just between us, in light of the events going on at the time, we can certainly understand what they did, even if we don't agree with it, etc.

I apologize for my attempt to ruin the party. After all, how can one speak out against the release of a Jew who already paid his debt to society (some will say he even paid it twice - first when he murdered, and the second time when he sat in prison.) Yet on this not-so-festive occasion, it would be good to clarify one bothersome issue.

Amongst us, within the religious public, we are very angry about murderers who are "one of us," especially when those murderers are being associated with us. After all, he didn't act in our name, and certainly not on our orders. In fact, we explain, he even caused great damage to the settlement enterprise, to National-Religious Judaism, and to the religious public in general. Yet 15 minutes after we completely disassociate ourselves from him, and the prisoner finds himself in jail, feelings of pity awaken within us.

Have some mercy, Jews - because he has a family or suffers from back pains, and especially because we know him, and he's actually a really good guy. So ahead of Passover or Independence Day we start working on their behalf. They may indeed not represent us, but we need to represent them. Every semi-psycho who attempted to kill Arabs is suddenly the entire religious public's problem. Anyone who didn't think for a moment before he proceeded to hurt Arabs suddenly takes up whole days in the schedule of Knesset members and rabbis dealing with his urgent matter. As if he was a Prisoner of Zion.

It's one thing for whole communities to assist the prisoners' families. The families are not at fault after all for the father's display of radical irresponsibility. The support offered to the families is a nice act of solidarity by the religious community, just as it would be in the case of any family facing a difficult situation.

But why, for God's sake, do we need to make an effort to secure the release of serious terrorist-criminals? Only because they're "one of us?" Only because they mere tried or managed to kill Arabs?

After all, we are not talking about helping someone who found himself in a situation where he was forced to shoot, or someone who became mixed up with a leftist and vengeful legal system. Rather, those are people who actively and deliberately initiated an attack on Arabs.

They should be seeking the support of those who they sought out for a permit to do the deed.

We don't work for you

So I'm taking this opportunity to turn to the next religious terrorist. I won't bother to explain to you the "thou shalt not murder" ban. It seems insulting that we even need to discuss such things. I will even not try to convince you of the future damage to be caused to you, your family, to your community, and to the entire nation - I won't even try. I also won't amuse you with the importance of adhering to the law. I may be naÔve, but after the Jewish underground that operated almost 30 years ago, and after a few more acts of violence by our people, I at least expect that the lesson was learned.

Yet if after all those cases, Ami Popper, and Ben Shimol, and Goldstein, and Yigal Amir, you still fail to understand the significance and heavy price of this act - don't be asking for pardons. At least don't expect that rabbis and Knesset members and just regular people on the street who disassociated themselves from you when you were nabbed will make an effort in the future to secure your early release. We don't work for you.

Please pay attention, the next terrorist. If you commit an act of grave violence, and if you are caught, you will not be released for the holidays or for a brit celebration or for a relaxed weekend. Our automatic sense of solidarity with people of your type is going on vacation. The solidarity resources of the National-Religious community are limited, and you're certainly not worth it to have us wasting our empathy on you.

It is better to invest our public and personal energies in a thousands more important goals. And if you decide, after everything that has already happened; to go wild with a gun, don't ask us to arrange a pardon for you. This is your problem.

We Hold These Lies to Be Truths

Primerprez believes it's educational to occasionally read the lies spread by the Israel-haters. This item was found on a site that calls itself We Hold These Truths but which more accurately should be called "We Hold These Lies to Be Truths" or "We Spread These Lies."

On its web site, it claims:

Our mission is to rescue followers of Christ from the apostasy called Christian-Zionism.

We reach out to the "lost sheep" inside our churches who do not know they are lost. They will remain lost if they listen only to their apostate religious leaders. Our purpose is to point the ancient way to the "Strait Gate." Christian-Zionism, by whatever name, is not that path and is purely a political movement. We would turn Christ followers to Peacemakers, away from the evil of warring on behalf of Israel, or for any other foreign state. We humbly believe God must see Christian-Zionism as the vilest apostasy in the 2000 year history of Christianity.

Its sly forerunner goes by the name of Judeo-Christianity, also an oxymoron.

We include just a few comments interspersed with one of the postings to the web site.

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Israel and the Philistines, Who is the Aggressor?

Charles E Carlson
April 20, 2008

I was recently a guest speaker at a well-planned three day college conference in Arizona where the subject was the Islam, Judaism and Israel / Palestine Conflict. The last day program featured a Jewish Rabbi and a Muslim Imam who presented their sides of the story. They were kind to each other, each tried to leave the impression that his religion sought peace was not to blame for the mean and vicious acts by both sides.

My part was to be a 20-minute racehorse presentation on Christian Zionism. It was my chance to explain, if I could, that Christian Zionism is very much a cause of the conflict and that those who follow it have the innocent blood of many Philistines and a lesser number of Jews on their hands.

[There are, of course, no Philistines left and there is certainly no connection between the Biblical Philistines and the present day Arabs who rather recently decided to call themselves Palestinians.]

Alas, technology broke down just as I began, and I was left standing on my feet without props to prove my rather complicated point, nor was there time to improvise in the very fast moving program. So I switched directions and asked the students a direct and simple question and told them they should demand an answer from every speaker:

"Who is the aggressor in the land of the Philistines, the Israelis or the Palestinians."

[Now comes the rewriting of history. Even most Arabs they started the conflict, since it's hard to pretend they didn't invade Israel the day it was reestablished.]

In order to solve any conflict, an intercessor, judge or parent must establish which warring party is pressing the issue. Which one keeps the war, squabble, hair-pulling match or dogfight alive? There is always an aggressor who does not want it to end. I went on to say it was my observation from being there, that it is the Israelis who are the aggressor and they always have been. Israel justifies every assassination on what it says is Philistine aggression, and it claims to only be retaliating each time.

[Ah, those Philistines again!

Apparently, Israel should just let its people get slaughtered, like lambs.]

Gaza is a microcosm of the prisons in which every Philistine exists to a greater or lesser degree. A very few inside the locked down towns and villages of Gaza continue to spray rockets over the walls and fences at their captors. These "Qassams" are unguided and uncontrolled and rarely hit anything. They do not really have targets, only directions of flight. They cannot be aimed, they are simply pointed. In two years, only 11 unlucky Israeli humans have been killed. An unknown few were actually wounded by what both sides agree is several thousands of Qassams.

[The writer would apparently be delighted if the Kassams, which are purely weapons of terror with no military value, succeeded in not only terrorizing innocent Israelis but murdering even more of them.]

No accurate figure for the injured are available because Israel's military treats large numbers of persons for "shock" whenever a Qassam lands near someone. Israel photo-ops these events with supposed "shock victims" who seem to be unmarked.

Philistines rockets can reach only one Israeli town, Sederot, built just over the fence from the Northeast corner of the Gaza Strip. Occasionally a super big Qassam reached the near edge of a more distant military town, Askalon. Israel claims the intended targets are innocent civilians.

[Only because their intended targets are innocent civilians.

Ashkelon is a port city, not a "military town."]

The Philistines used a "guided" weapon system for several years until about 2005, which I call "Human bombs." I went to Gaza to find out who they targeted and why they did it. I found out quickly by riding a bus full of Israeli soldiers, a sitting target for a bomber. A volunteer courier with an explosive device, is directed hopefully at a military targets. The records over four years show success at about one in three or four. Israel called these messengers "suicide bombers." I use a more respectful name, Human bombs that delivered to their captor-enemy and manually explode it.

Less there be doubt, this author does not believe in suicide because God forbids taking human life. This includes ones own life. However, I do not for a minute believe the intent of the Human bomb is to kill himself, nor do they want to die. He want to kill Israeli soldiers, and giving his own life is his sacrifice.

[That must be why they specialized in bombing shopping centers, pizza parlors and discotheques.]

There is another reason I oppose Human bombs. They end the life of the bravest and most dedicated of those capable of resisting. But my opinion is not important in this matter because it is not my life that is at stake.

I have witnessed chilling Israeli air raids on Gaza, and I can imagine the total desperation of many there. The boy who has seen his father and brothers beaten or killed in the presence of the family; the mother who is unable to feed her children or heat their home, or the dad who cannot provide for or defend his family and sleeps in fear of the nightly barrage that comes with life in Gaza. I cannot place myself in the shoes of the boy who has had his childhood taken away, seen a friend shot to death for throwing rocks, or of the girl who has been robbed of even her hope. I do not accept suicide, but I do not condemn any act of resistance by those who are so oppressed.

Israel lionizes its own mythical human bomber. According to the Hebrew Old Testament book of Judges, Samson became the Israelite hero by knowingly sacrificing his body in order to kill the enemy, including women and children. Recall that Samson was sort of an Israeli Goliath, killing Philistines. He was captured, but managed during his captivity to destroy the temple of the Philistines in Gaza with the royal family, the army, and himself, all inside. Here are Samson's words, according the Hebrew Bible, Judges 16:30:

"Let me die with the Philistines!" He pushed hard and the temple collapsed on the rulers and all the people in it. He killed many more people in his death than he had killed during his life."

The modern day Philistines (the Arabic word for Palestinian) have been championed by rock throwing youths, who starting in the uprising of the 1980s. Many of these died as children, assassinated by angry soldiers. They are modern day, brave-as-David rock throwers and human bombs, who struck back at their captors in desperation. Many more have tried and failed to reach a military target before being killed or captured.

The billion-dollar wall around the West Bank was more than paid for by the USA. The Gaza "canary cage" with 1.5 million living in it is now almost airtight. Human carried bombings have declined since 2004 because it has became nearly impossible to get out of Israel's animal cages, and because the world has allowed Israel to build walls around their prisoners.

Many Philistine youths have been captured trying to bomb Israel. The Philistines put out Sampson's eyes and chained him to a post, according to the Hebrew story. Captured by the Israelis can be worse than what biblical Sampson suffered. We will not go into the Israeli practice of routine torture of their captured, both men and women, but it is well-known.

Qassam rockets are no more than a feeble protest, a signal to the world that something is not well inside those walls from a society in the midst of mass execution. As feeble a protest as they are, Qassams are Israel's latest excuse to proclaim that the Philistines are the aggressor and Israelis are the victims.

Former President Jimmy Carter defied President Bush, the Congress, and the state of Israel in meeting with the leader of Hamas in Damascus, Syria, on April 18, 2008. International pressure from Israel, UK and the USA prevents Hamas from carrying out the Palestinian voters' mandate, and worse yet, allows Israel an excuse to hunt down and systematically assassinate Hamas workers and leaders, usually with American made missiles. No one denies that Hamas is the lawfully elected government of Gaza, as well as the West Bank. The excuse for not recognizing Hamas is always "suicide bombers and Qassam rockets."

[Nobody denies Hamas won the election, but its very participation was a violation of the Oslo Accords, its coup in Gaza was not lawful and its terror is not lawful.]

Israel would not allow past President Carter into Gaza, and they denied him protection during his visit. But Israel did take time to make a photo of Carter examining the carcasses of exploded Qassam rockets. This photo-op should backfire because the pathetic crudeness of the rockets is revealed in the photo in Haaretz newspaper, and we can finally see what a Qassam is. Mr. Carter is seen looking at lengths of rusty sewer pipes with crudely cut and unmatched welded on tail fins. Israel showed Carter weapons that were incapable of rocket flight. It should make the world feel sorry for the Philistines.

Israel paints all acts of resistance with the same "terrorist" brush. They would never let 80-year-old President Carter inside besieged Gaza to witness what Israel does to its captives because he might tell and many would believe him!

The American media has persuaded most Americans that if Palestinians kill an Israeli it is terrorism, and deserves fierce punishment, even collective punishment. But when Israelis kill dozens of Palestinian civilians, often children, it is viewed as collateral damage. There is no excuse for such supposed ignorance among Christian Zionists; they believe Israel is the victim because they want to believe it, not because it makes sense.

It pains me when Imams or any Muslim apologizes for the Human bombs, or condemns them; to do so, plays into the hands of those who claim the Philistines have always been the aggressors. I am aware of and sympathetic to the pressures put on Muslims in the USA to exemplify peace. This pressure is also largely fanned into flame by the pro-Israel racism of Christian Zionists in the USA. We must all defend the rights of an occupied people to revolt, by whatever extreme means.

Who wants the slaughter to go on, and why…who benefits from its continuance, clearly not those in the gulags. Israel is the only possible aggressor. It benefits from the continued conflict, and it cannot live with other possible conclusions.

The last Rabbi to speak at the students conference, named Rabbi Rosenberg, from Greater Phoenix, made an honest admission to the students in answering a pointed question. He stated in some detail the real reason Israeli Jews cannot share the land in a democracy with the Muslims. Jews, he said, have only one child per family and "Arabs have five, sometimes six children." He said Israel would soon be out-voted if they allowed a democracy in Israel.

Americans are preoccupied with Iraq, and most (with the big exception of Christian Zionists) admit that the USA is the aggressor. For religious reasons Christian Zionists also deny Israel's guilt. But it is time the rest of us admits that occupation of the land of the Philistines continues because Israel's present leaders do not believe they can live in peace with Muslim Arabs. They pretend to seek peace, but they keep the conflict going.

Postscript:

Six years ago, and just a few months after day 911, We Hold These Truths published Smart Bombs vs. Intelligent Bombs. At that time there had been only 54 Palestinian human bombs in the entire 54-year history of the Israeli conflict. The present number is a few over 100, and there were none in the first 50 years of the conflict.

[Apparently, the Arabs are to be congratulated for only perpetuating about a hundred terror bombings using suicide bombers and Israel is to be condemned for taking measures preventing more misguided Arab youths from becoming shaheeds.]

How Not To Make Progress

The reports on Abu Mazen/Mahmoud Abbas' meeting with President George W. Bush illustrates why not only is there little hope for peace but why things keep getting worse.

This is an AP story published in the Jerusalem Post.

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Abbas: No progress made during Mideast peace talks with Bush

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday he failed to achieve any progress in Middle East peace talks with President George W. Bush and he was returning home with little to show for his visit.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the Palestinian leader sounded pessimistic about the prospects of achieving any deal with Israel this year despite a big US push that began five months ago at a summit in Annapolis, Maryland.

"Frankly, so far nothing has been achieved. But we are still conducting direct work to have a solution," Abbas said.

[Nothing has been achieved because the Palestinian Arabs have no desire to live in peace. Pretending otherwise only exacerbates the situation and encourages them to continue their obstinacy.

Given the current situation of two Palestinian Authority governments not only trying to outdo each other in their instransigence but also incapable of upholding an agreement even if they were so inclined, pushing Israel for concessions which are bound to be unreciprocated - as have all its concessions since the Oslo Experiment began - is also counterproductive.]

Abbas said the biggest obstacle is Israel's continued expansion of Jewish settlements on Palestinian-occupied territories.

[The presence of Jews in Judea and Samaria is no more an obstacle to peace than is the presence of Arabs on the other side of the Green Line.

If the Palestinian Arabs were interested in peace, they wouldn't demand the ethnic cleansing of the disputed territories.]

"We demanded the Americans implement the first phase of the road map that talks about the cessation of settlement expansion," Abbas said, expressing disappointment the US has not exerted more pressure on Israel to stop. "This is the biggest blight that stands as a big rock in the path of negotiations."

[There has been very little building in the Jewish communities in the disputed territories, far less than the amount of building in the Arab settlements.

By far the most important provision of the first stage of the road map is the dismantling of the terror infrastructure built up by the Palestinian Authority. Indeed, that infrastructure has expanded significantly since the road map was supposedly accepted by the Palestinian Authority.

It's convenient for Abbas to try to divert attention from his own duplicity and unwillingness to follow through on his commitments, but appeasing him is counterproductive.]

Israel is pushing forward with controversial building projects on disputed land in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and is refusing to take down illegal settlement outposts, release Palestinian prisoners, halt military incursions, and dismantle roadblocks that severely disrupt daily life.

[In violation of journalistic ethics, the reporter has inserted propaganda into a purported news article as if it were fact.

For Israel's enemies, any housing for Jews is controversial. If the Arabs want to keep Jews out, they should negotiate a peace treaty, adhere to it, and then they'll be able to control their own territory.

Until then, Jews have just as much right to build homes in the disputed portions of Eretz Yisrael as anyone else.

The so-called "illegal" settlements are only illegal because they were not autorized by the Israeli government. They're really an internal, Israeli matter.

The Israeli government has repeatedly released Arab prisoners, only to have them return to murdering innocent Israelis, and continues to do so. Primerprez believes no Arab terrorists should be released as long as Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser are being held hostage by Hamas and Hezbollah.

As long as the Arabs continue to insist on murdering Israelis, the Israeli government has no choice but to defend its citizens. The "military incursions" and roadblocks save lives.]

Abbas' aides said he also was upset after his lunch Thursday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. While discussing what a peace deal would look like, Rice did not mention the Palestinian goal of creating a state based on borders before Israel captured Palestinian land during the 1967 Six-Day War.

[There were no "borders" before 1967 and Israel did not capture "Palestinian land;" Israel captured land that had been occupied by Egypt and Jordan.]

"We demanded that they talk about the '67 borders," Abbas told AP, showing a rare flash of anger. "None of them talk about the '67 borders."

[How can one talk about something that never existed?]

Asked whether US officials offered any new proposals, Abbas said no.

"They are exerting efforts. And we are still negotiating," he said, but he noted that no progress had been made on any of the core issues.

[Mostly because the Palestinian Arabs have yet to make any changes in the outlandish demands they made at the start of the Oslo Experiment.]

"All the files are still open. None of them are concluded. The situation is still as it was," Abbas said, speaking in Arabic.

The main unresolved issues include the final borders of a Palestinian state, the fate of Jerusalem, disputed Israeli settlements and Palestinian refugees.

[The article doesn't mention the core issue: the unwillingness of the Palestinian Arabs to make peace.]

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Bush did not respond directly when Abbas brought up the issue of Palestinian objections to continuing Israeli settlement expansion when the two leaders met Thursday at the White House.

"Bush told him (Abbas) that I'm focusing on the bigger picture," Erekat explained.

Abbas said he was looking for a full Middle East peace framework agreement that would be detailed and includes timetables, while the Israelis have signaled that a "declaration of principles" would be enough of an achievement before Bush leaves office in January 2009.

[Abbas can't even control Ramallah and can't set foot in Hamastan; what's the point of a peace agreement?]

"We don't want a declaration of principle because we had one," Abbas said, referring to the 1993 peace agreement reached at Oslo between the Palestinians and Israel. "Now we want a normal agreement. And then we can go for the details."

Despite his disappointment, Abbas said he would still meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert regularly in hopes of achieving a deal. But there are no three-way talks scheduled anytime soon with Bush, Abbas and Olmert.

Bush is scheduled to visit Israel in May to help Olmert celebrate the country's 60th anniversary, and then the US president will travel to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to see Abbas separately.

"It will be a bilateral meeting between me and Bush. That is the meeting I was invited for," Abbas said.

Abbas said the one thing he did achieve during his USvisit was to lay out the Palestinian conditions for any peace deal and press his case that he cannot go for any partial agreement because the Palestinian people would not accept it.

[So far, there's no indication the Palestinian Arabs would accept any agreement.]

"We have made clear our position to the president, to the State Department and to the Congress," Abbas said during the 15-minute interview in his hotel room in Washington. "And now our position is very clear to all of them."

Abbas' moderate and Western-backed government rules the West Bank, the territory that would eventually form the bulk of an independent Palestinian state. Hamas, the Islamic militant group that seized control of Gaza and serves a rival force to Abbas, is not involved in the peace negotiations with Israel.

Abbas has been losing popular support for the peace process due to a lack of any changes on the ground for people whose daily lives have been disrupted by Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks that Israel says are meant to maintain security and stop militant attacks on Israeli citizens.

[He's been losing popular support because he's a weak, spineless, ineffectual leader whose far more interested in blaming Israel for his failures than in helping his people.

Israel says those measures are meant to maintain security and stop militant attacks on Israeli citizens because they are needed to maintain security and stop militant attacks on Israeli citizens. They wouldn't be needed if Abbas would adhere to his commitments under the road map and dismantle his terror infrastructure.]

Middle East Logic: Terrorists Pardoned, Innocent Israelis Kept Hostage

Primerprez asks: "Why does Israel pardon terrorists and release prisoners while Eldad Regev, Ehud Goldwasser and Gilad Shalit are kept hostage by Hamas and Hezbollah?

The Palestinian Arabs minimally should have to make good will gestures, starting with the freeing of those hostages, before getting any more concessions from Israel.

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Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades operatives disarmed, put on probation, then pardoned as part of amnesty agreement between Israel, PA

Ali Waked
YNET

Israel agreed to pardon 10 more wanted gunmen from al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military wing, as decided during a security meeting between Israeli representatives and Palestinians.

The amnesty was granted to men who refrained from terrorist acts and honored an agreement, which commanded them to disarm and spend a probation period living under harsh conditions in Palestinian prisons. At least 17 of the pardoned men are from Nablus.

Israel has also decided to extend the probation periods of 150 other wanted men, who will have to prove that they are no longer involved in anti-Israel activities.

The amnesty agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority commenced in July of last year, and stated that Israel would grant amnesty to 240 al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades gunmen, who would disarm and enter into a probation period of three months, which Israel could extend as it saw fit, and during which they were to prove that they were no longer involved in terrorist activities.

After the first three months Israel decided to extend the probation period of all of the wanted men for another three months, after which 32 men were pardoned and allowed free.

One month ago 36 more men were pardoned, and since then the Palestinians have expressed satisfaction with the agreement, and said that the wanted men involved in the program were extremely committed to it.

Teach children to respect others' beliefs

[Published in the New Haven Register, April 22, 2008.

Mark G. Sklarz is vice president of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven and chairman of the federation's Jewish Community Relations Council. Readers may write him in care of the Register, 40 Sargent Drive, New Haven 06511.]

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By Mark G. Sklarz

As I cuddled my newborn granddaughter in the hospital last Sunday, I marveled at the perfect miniature features of this beautiful tiny person, overwhelmed by the love, joy and appreciation universally shared by grandparents of all cultures and heritages. Yet, as my mind wandered, I felt a surge of anxiety over the responsibility owed to this precious and innocent little girl. Will we provide the tools to nurture a n open and receptive mind that will respect and cherish the values and beliefs of others, no matter how different from hers? Will we teach her to embrace human dignity, integrity and social justice and to encourage all people to enjoy the freedom of choice and expression to maximize their potential? Or will we allow preconceived notions and biases to distort our guidance and poison her with unfounded fears and prejudices.?

In a world in which we often control so little, this is a choice which allows all of us to make a difference. There is no vehicle more powerful to engage young minds and to inspire an environment of meaningful dialogue, mutual respect for differences and spiritual health than a vibrant and open educational system that challenges accepted principles.

In contrast, no process can be more destructive to engendering trust or promoting harmony and understanding than to fill a developing mind with prejudice and pernicious stereotypes.

No region of the world has been more volatile or consumed with more passionate hatred and distrust the last 60 years than the Middle East. Within hours after Israel's creation by the United Nations in 1948, it was attacked by neighbors dedicated to her annihilation.

Miraculously, despite being surrounded by a predominantly hostile population of 40 million people, this tiny country survived. Little has changed over six decades, except that the development of Israel's military strength has compelled certain of her neighbors grudgingly to acknowledge her existence. Of course, when the security and survival of a nation depends upon perpetual military vigilance and preparedness, mistakes and abuses occur, and Israel is no exception.

On April 1, a New York Times article reported the content of broadcasts, sermons and educational materials employed by Hamas to indoctrinate children and young people of Gaza. Included in the report was a comment by an Imam that "... Jews are a people who cannot be trusted ...," a portrayal of a children's television program featuring a rabbit who vowed "to get rid of the Jews, God willing, and I will eat them up, God willing," and references to videos promoting participation of young children armed with rifles.

These attitudes are complemented and exacerbated by textbooks used in the Gazan school system, which explicitly disparage and denigrate Jews. Children are being taught that hatred is a virtue and martyrdom is a value greater than life.

It is not acceptable for the world to stand silent and permit such contempt and prejudice to permeate the minds of the next generation.

Attempting to attribute culpability for the current situation is of no value, and roadmaps or other avenues to peace will not succeed if respect for the inherent right of all to celebrate their beliefs and pursue their lives in harmony, peace and security is not a fundamental precept of an educational system.

Israel's population continues to aspire to and treasure the opportunity to live in peace. However, the vicious dedication of powerful fundamentalist factions to Israel's annihilation has not ceased from the moment the Jewish state was created and has compelled Israel to expend much of its valuable and limited resources on conflicts of self-preservation.

Israel does not wish to occupy; rather, it maintains certain strategic positions to ensure the survival of its population.

This is tragic, but does not alter reality. The long-range solution is to teach all children from the age of my infant granddaughter that respect and understanding for the beliefs of all people will build common bonds and encourage all to thrive intellectually, culturally and economically.

Now is the time to guide children to collaborate, to speak candidly but respectfully, and to envision and pursue harmony among historically incompatible cultures. Not an easy task, but difficult challenges rarely are - which is why the reward will be so enriching and everlasting.

It's Extreme Islamism, Not an "American global project"

We merely comment the Archbishop seems to be naive, at best. The persecution suffered by Christians in the Middle East is real and severe, but it has nothing to do with either America or Israel; it has to do with the wave of extreme Islamism sweeping that area, leaving only one place where Christians are relatively safe: Israel.

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Archbishop of Canterbury says Middle East Christians are suffering persecution because of 'American global project'

Christians in the Middle East are facing persecution because of British and American foreign policy, the Archbishop of Canterbury will claim today.

Dr Rowan Williams will say that many Christians have been forced to flee their homes in the Holy Land because of 'appalling pressure' from extremist Islamic groups.

And he will warn that historic communities risk becoming mere 'museum pieces' in the 'theme park' Middle East because of the military policies of the West.

During an appearance in London yesterday, he said there was a risk that the region could become a "monochrome" area dominated by an "unfriendly" form of Islam.

Indigenous Christian groups were increasingly being seen as a 'foreign and aggressive' presence, he added.

The Archbishop will make the comments in a speech at Westminster Cathedral later today.

He will say that historically Christians have played a leading role in social, cultural and intellectual change in the Middle East. But historic communities now risked becoming mere 'museum pieces' in a 'theme park' region as a result of persecution.

In part this was due to an extremist form of Islam filling the void left following the peak of Arab nationalism, the head of the Church of England will claim.

But he also blames the role of Western governments.

Dr Williams will say: 'Indigenous Christian community throughout the region have suffered from being associated with the American global project, and indeed the British global project as part of the American global project.'

He cites a recent visit to Syria in which he met some of the half million refugees who had fled Iraq since 2003.

Dr Williams added: 'The military policies of the West in the last few years have firmly cemented in a great deal of the Middle East the notion that Christianity is a foreign, aggressive and Western presence.

'I regret it is a real tragedy that this ongoing crisis has yet to be the focus of policy declarations, or indeed recognised by some of our Western governments.'

He also calls on Christians around the world to focus on the crisis and said Government needed to pay attention to the worsening situation.

Speaking yesterday, he said: 'There is an urgent need for people in the UK to wake up to the fact that Christians in the Middle East are living through a time of change more dramatic and more costly than anything that has been seen for a thousand years and more.'

He went on to highlight the 'tragic situation' of Christian refugees from Iraq and the 'quiet but numerically huge exodus of Christians' - particularly educated Christians - out of the entire Middle East region.

'The remaining Christian communities are left exposed to violence or extremism in many countries, and the societies they live in are deprived of some of their most creative and resourceful citizens,' he added.