Friday, April 18, 2008

Hizbullah Will Dispatch Israeli Arabs to Attack From Rear in War

by Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com) A Syrian newspaper reported that Hizbullah plans to activate masses of Israeli Arab terrorists in the next war.

"A high-ranking Hizbullah official has said the party would launch an offensive on Israel in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948 in case the Jewish state wages a new war," the Iranian Fars News Agency reported in its coverage of the Syrian magazine Al-Hakika's interview with the unnamed Hizbullah man.

Further elaborating, the Hizbullah planner, a member of the group's religious "Shura Council," said, "We would not initiate war but in case they wage any war in the future, there will be a counter attack behind the front lines. And for the first time since 1948 in Palestine itself."

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE ARTICLE: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125916

 

Senior Shi'ite Iraqi Ayatollah Residing in Iran: 'Iranian Clerics Are Running Riot in Iraq

MEMRI -  Special Dispatch Series - No. 1902 April 18, 2008 No. 1902
 
In a recent interview with the Al-Arabiya website, Iraqi Ayatollah Fadhel Al-Maliki, a prominent Iraqi Shi'ite cleric who resides in the Iranian city of Qom, harshly criticized the Iranian clerics residing in Najaf, Iraq, for interfering in Iraqi politics. At the same time, he also condemned the Iraqi government for its military activities against the Mahdi Army in Basra, which he called "a violation of rights and an open war [waged] by the government against the Iraqi people." He added that the fighting in southern Iraq was "an intifada against occupation and corruption." Lastly, Al-Maliki criticized attempts by the Islamists in Basra to force women to wear the veil.
  
The Al-Arabiya website emphasized the importance of Al-Maliki's statements against the Iranian clerics in Iraq, pointing out that he is a Shi'ite ayatollah who heads a religious seminary in Qom.
  
The following are excerpts from the interview:(1) 

           
"Living here in Iran, I see that [the Iranians] do not permit any [non-Iranian] cleric, no matter how wise, to interfere in their politics and internal affairs. We in Iraq [must] likewise tell [the Iranian clerics residing in our country]: 'Refrain from interfering in our internal affairs, in order to avoid [stirring up] sensitive [issues]... and because an Iraqi cleric knows more about the affairs of his country [than you].' I [hereby] rule that a non-Iraqi cleric may not interfere in the political situation in Iraq, whether he resides in Qom or in Najaf. Living in Najaf does not make him an Iraqi...
  
"These Iranian clerics [living in Iraq] are running riot in our country, for they are part of a scheme based on a regional and international agenda, and are meant to provide a religious guise for a misguided political process... Today, Iraq is [virtually] ruled by the [Shi'ite clerics]... If these clerics, who now rule Iraq, are not actual religious clerics, they must remove their religious vestments... for a cleric must not be a member of a [political] party or of the government...
  
"A sectarian religious government will never succeed [in ruling] Iraq, and neither will a secular government. [The only kind of government that has a chance is] a civilian government based on the Iraqi virtues of nobility and moderation... The 'rule of the jurisprudent' [a basic principle of the Islamic regime in Iran] is not suited to Iraq...
  
"There are certain Iraqi [political] parties that emerged, were indoctrinated, and were armed in Iran. [These] do not represent the Iraqi people, which is being misled with religious slogans."
  
About women in Basra who have been murdered for going unveiled, Al-Maliki said: "We denounce anyone who perpetrates crimes against civilians, no matter what his religion. Islam does not permit attacks on women for not wearing a veil, and they must not be forced to do so."
  
Asked about his residing in Iran, Al-Maliki replied that he had been exiled from Iraq, and that he was, in fact, the only Iraqi Shi'ite cleric who had been exiled. He added that if he returned he would promptly be killed – for he opposed the current Iraqi regime just as he had opposed the previous regime of Saddam Hussein. He also stated that he felt like a stranger in Qom, and that he woud leave Iran if any Arab country agreed to accept him.
  
Endnote:  
(1)
www.alarabiya.net, April 1, 2008.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Editor's Notes: It was always a jihad

The bleak bottom line, as far as historian Benny Morris is concerned, is that it's us or them.

Benny Morris.
Photo: Courtesy

The bleak emphasis, underlined in the concluding chapter of his new book, 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War, is that we should have realized this all along, but are only now, after 60 years, internalizing it.

And Morris's bleak assessment of historical flux is that the odds of the Zionist enterprise prevailing in a region so ruthless, so hostile to Jewish sovereignty, so consumed by the perceived religious imperative to annihilate Israel, are "very poor."

Morris does have an optimistic caveat... if you consider a nuclear strike to offer any conceivable grounds for optimism. His dismal outlook, he says, is based on "the current situation and trends."

If, however, Israel resorts to the use of nuclear weapons to counter Iran's drive toward a nuclear capability, "this could put the fight out of radical Islam for a few generations. The Arab world could soften and move to the West."

But before you get too relieved, Morris adds another reservation: "Of course, it could go either way. It could make them more vengeful and aggressive."
 

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Who's the most popular hero in the Arab World?

Who's the most popular leader in the Arab world? A paragon of non-violence and spiritualism? No way, It's terrorist Hassan Nasrallah, with President Bashar Assad of Syria close behind. All them folks who tell us that most Arabs are not extremists ought to think again. At least, Osama Bin Laden is not number 1 any more. That's something.
 
Ami Isseroff

 
 
 Last update - 14:37 16/04/2008       
Survey: Nasrallah is the most admired leader in the Arab world
By Haaretz Service
 
Hezbollah chief Sheikh Nassan Nasrallah is the most admired leader in the Arab world, according to a poll released recently by the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland.
 
Nasrallah seems to be gaining in popularity, with some 26 percent of respondents voicing support for him. Syrian President Bashar Assad also won an increase in popularity, according to the poll.
 
The survey also found that the majority of Arab public - in contrast to their governments - does not view Iran as a major threat.
 
Respondents said they believe Iran should be free to pursue its nuclear program and are opposed to international pressure to halt development. Some 44 percent of respondents said the outcome of a nuclear Iran would be beneficial for the region.
 
The poll found an increased interest within the Arab world regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, with some 86 percent of respondents calling it one of the top three most important issues facing the refion.
 
A majority of respondents support a two-state solution based on 1967 borders but an increasing number voiced pessimism about its prospects.
 
Some 50 percent of respondents believe that the failure of a two-state solution would lead to continued conflict, 9 percent believe it would eventually lead to a one-state solution and 7 percent think the Palestinian will eventually surrender to Israel.
 
The survery also found that 18 percent of Arab respondents sympathize with Hamas over Fatah, while 38 percent voiced equal sympathy for the rival factions. Some 15 percent of respondents blame Hamas for the situation in Gaza, while 23 percent believe Fatah is to blame.
 
Some 83 percent of respondents, meanwhile, voiced an unfavorable view of the United States, while 70 percent express no confidence in the American government. Most Arabs, however, ranked the U.S. as among the leaders of freedom and democracy.
 
The poll found that 32 percent of Arabs believe that America's Middle East policy will remain the same regardless of who wins the coming elections. Some 18 percent of respondents think Barack Obama has the best chance of bringing peace to the region, while 13 percent favor Hillary Clinton. Another 4 percent think McCain is the best candidate to advance Middle East peace.

Iraq Author: Jews have a historic right to Palestine

There is much to ponder in this wonderful article, including this:
 
'Alwan writes that the Arab League is to blame for the refusal to recognize the 1947 U.N. partition plan, for starting a war to prevent its implementation, and for the results of that war, which the Arabs call the Nakba (disaster). He points an accusing finger at the Arab regimes, the Arab League, and the educated circles in the Arab world, saying that they had all used the term "nakba" to direct popular consciousness toward a cultural tradition that neither accepts the other side nor recognizes its rights – thereby promoting bigotry, violence and extremism. He also claims that there have been attempts to rewrite Palestinian history, in order to deny any connection between it and the Jewish people.
  
'Alwan contends that the "Nakba mentality" among Arabs has boomeranged, giving rise to tyrannical rulers, extremist clerics, and religious zealots of every description. In his view, the Arab world will never shed the stigma of terrorism in the West unless it abandons this concept and all that it entails.
 
..."Arabs who are averse to such inhuman behavior must help me expose and eliminate the enormous lie that has for 60 years justified, extolled, and supported brutality. [Such behavior] is no longer limited to the expression of unconscious [impulses] by individuals, but constitutes a broad cultural phenomenon, which began in Lebanon, [spread to] Iraq and Palestine, and then [spread] – slowly but surely – to other Arab states as well.
  
"This enormous lie is what the Arabs called the Nakba – that is, the establishment of two states in Palestine: the state of Israel, which the Jews agreed to accept, and the state of Palestine, which the Arabs rejected.
  
"In our times, when science, with its accurate instruments, can predict climatic changes that will lead to drought or the movement of tectonic plates that causes earthquakes, it is inconceivable that a modern man can, without making a laughingstock of himself, attribute the destruction of cities ancient or modern to the wrath of Allah. Nevertheless, today, 80% of Arabs claim this to be the case. They are neither embarrassed nor afraid of being laughed at.
  
"This high percentage includes not only the illiterates who densely populate rural areas, villages, and small and large cities, but also students, teachers, lecturers, graduates of institutions of higher education, scientists, technology experts, physicians, graduates of religious universities such as Al-Azhar, historians, and politicians who have held or are currently holding public office.
  
"It is those numerous educated elites who have forced the Arab mentality into a narrow, restrictive, and deficient cultural mold, spewing violence, terrorism, and zealotry, and prohibiting innovative thought... All this was done to instill a false sense of oppression in the hearts of the Arabs, and to destroy them with the infectious disease of despair and confusion.
  
"[This attitude] is rooted in the 1947 Arab League resolution stating that Palestine is a 'stolen' land and that none but a Muslim Arab is entitled to benefit from it as an autonomous [political entity], even if another's historic roots there predate those of the Muslims or the Arabs."
...
"Why did the partition resolution, which gave a state in Palestine to the Jews and one to the Arabs next to it, become the Nakba – [the star] that rises and sets daily over the Arab lands without emitting even the tiniest ray of light to illuminate the path for their peoples?
 
"Did the Jews have any less right to Palestine than the Arabs? What historic criteria can be used to determine the precedence of one [nation's] right over that of the other?
  
"Refusing to recognize the right of the other so as to usurp his rights was a governing principle of the Islamic conquests from the time of 'Omar bin Al-Khattab; during that historical period it was the norm. [But] at the turn of the [20th] century, this principle was abandoned and prohibited, because it sparked wars and [violent] conflict. The international community passed laws restricting the principle of non-acceptance of the other, in the founding principles of the League of Nations in 1919. Subsequently, with the U.N.'s establishment, these laws were developed [further], with appendices and commentary, to adapt them to the current historical era and to express the commonly accepted values of national sovereignty and peoples' right to self-determination.
  
"But because of their sentimental yearning for the past and zealous adherence to [old] criteria, the Arabs purged their hearts of any inclination to adjust to the spirit of the age. They thus became captives of the principle of non-acceptance of the other and of denying the other [the right] to live, [among] other rights.
  
"As a result, damage was done to the rights and interests of non-Arab nations and ethnic groups in the Arab lands – among them the Kurds, the Copts, and the Jews. [Thus,] the Arabs still treat the numerous minorities that came under their dominion 1,400 years ago in accordance with the laws from the era of Arab conquest.
  
"Despite the consequences of denying the other the right to exist, not to mention other rights – that is, [despite] the oppression, conflicts, wars, and instability [resulting from this]... the Arabs have steadfastly clung to their clearly chauvinist position. All problems in the region arising from minorities' increasing awareness of their rights have been dealt with by the Arabs in accordance with [the principle of non-acceptance]... [even] after the emergence of international institutions giving these rights legal validity, in keeping with the mentality and rationale of our time."

Iraqi Author 'Aref 'Alwan: The Jews Have an Historic Right to Palestine  

In an article posted December 7, 2007, on the leftist website http://www.ahewar.org  ,(1) 'Aref 'Alwan, an Iraqi author and playwright who resides in London and is the author of 12 novels,(2) states that the Jews have an historic right to Palestine because their presence there preceded the Arab conquest and has continued to this day.
  
In the article, titled "Do the Jews Have Any Less Right to Palestine than the Arabs?" 'Alwan called on the Arab world to acknowledge the Jews' right to Palestine, because justice demanded it and also because doing so would end the violence and the killing of Arabs, as well as intra-Arab strife. He added that such a move would also open up new avenues for the Arab world that would be more consistent with the values and needs of modern society.
  
'Alwan writes that the Arab League is to blame for the refusal to recognize the 1947 U.N. partition plan, for starting a war to prevent its implementation, and for the results of that war, which the Arabs call the Nakba (disaster). He points an accusing finger at the Arab regimes, the Arab League, and the educated circles in the Arab world, saying that they had all used the term "nakba" to direct popular consciousness toward a cultural tradition that neither accepts the other side nor recognizes its rights – thereby promoting bigotry, violence and extremism. He also claims that there have been attempts to rewrite Palestinian history, in order to deny any connection between it and the Jewish people.
  
'Alwan contends that the "Nakba mentality" among Arabs has boomeranged, giving rise to tyrannical rulers, extremist clerics, and religious zealots of every description. In his view, the Arab world will never shed the stigma of terrorism in the West unless it abandons this concept and all that it entails.
  
To boost his claim that the Jews have an historic right to Palestine, 'Alwan provides an overview of Jewish history in the land of Israel. He questions the validity of the Islamic traditions underpinning the Arab claim to Palestine, Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount, and presents evidence that religions that preceded Islam had conducted rituals on the Temple Mount.
  
As an example of the traditional Arab mentality that does not accept the other or recognize his rights, 'Alwan discusses the Arabs' abuse of the Kurds in Iraq and of the Christians in Egypt and Lebanon.
  
The following are excerpts from the article:
          
The Nakba: A Great Lie


"When the Salafi mob in Gaza tied the hands and feet of a senior Palestinian official and hurled him, alive, from the 14th floor, I asked myself: What political or religious precepts must have been inculcated into the minds of these young people to make them treat a human life with such shocking cruelty?
  
"Earlier, I had watched on TV as the bodies of two Israeli soldiers were thrown from the second floor [of a building] in a Palestinian city. Whether or not it was the same Salafi mob behind that incident, [one asks oneself]: What language, [or rather,] what historic linguistic distortion could have erased from the human heart [all] moral sensibilities when dealing with a living and helpless human being?
  
"Arabs who are averse to such inhuman behavior must help me expose and eliminate the enormous lie that has for 60 years justified, extolled, and supported brutality. [Such behavior] is no longer limited to the expression of unconscious [impulses] by individuals, but constitutes a broad cultural phenomenon, which began in Lebanon, [spread to] Iraq and Palestine, and then [spread] – slowly but surely – to other Arab states as well.
  
"This enormous lie is what the Arabs called the Nakba – that is, the establishment of two states in Palestine: the state of Israel, which the Jews agreed to accept, and the state of Palestine, which the Arabs rejected.
  
"In our times, when science, with its accurate instruments, can predict climatic changes that will lead to drought or the movement of tectonic plates that causes earthquakes, it is inconceivable that a modern man can, without making a laughingstock of himself, attribute the destruction of cities ancient or modern to the wrath of Allah. Nevertheless, today, 80% of Arabs claim this to be the case. They are neither embarrassed nor afraid of being laughed at.
  
"This high percentage includes not only the illiterates who densely populate rural areas, villages, and small and large cities, but also students, teachers, lecturers, graduates of institutions of higher education, scientists, technology experts, physicians, graduates of religious universities such as Al-Azhar, historians, and politicians who have held or are currently holding public office.
  
"It is those numerous educated elites who have forced the Arab mentality into a narrow, restrictive, and deficient cultural mold, spewing violence, terrorism, and zealotry, and prohibiting innovative thought... All this was done to instill a false sense of oppression in the hearts of the Arabs, and to destroy them with the infectious disease of despair and confusion.
  
"[This attitude] is rooted in the 1947 Arab League resolution stating that Palestine is a 'stolen' land and that none but a Muslim Arab is entitled to benefit from it as an autonomous [political entity], even if another's historic roots there predate those of the Muslims or the Arabs."

The Nakba Boomerang  


"[The upshot] of this confusion in [Arab] mentality is that the lie has boomeranged on the Arabs. [Thus] appeared [on the scene] Saddam Hussein, Hafez Al-Assad, Bashar Al-Assad, Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, Hassan Nasrallah, Nabih Berri, Khaled Mash'al, Isma'il Haniya, and Mahmoud Al-Zahar, whose young [thugs] threw the senior Palestinian official from the 14th floor. Finally, from the foot of the eastern mountains bordering the Middle East came Ahmadinejad, who is committed to preparing the way for the anarchy and destruction that accompanies the advent of the long-awaited Mahdi, who will resolve the Palestinian problem.
  
"Today, owing to the ideological distortions that have afflicted the Arab popular consciousness since the so-called Nakba, and [also owing] to the lies that have accumulated around this notion, [the label of] 'terrorism' has become attached to Arabs, wherever they are.
  
"Despite the great political and cultural efforts by large and important Arab states such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and some Gulf states to restore Arab ties with the rest of the world, and to curb the culture of terrorism in Arab societies, they have all failed. This is because these attempts to rectify [the situation], from both within and without [the Arab countries], both stemmed from and were a logical extension of the concept of the Nakba.
  
"This proves that the Arabs have no hope of extricating themselves from the cultural and political challenge of terrorism unless they come up with [new] and different [fundamental] premises, and with an outlook completely free of the fetters of the religious ritual that they have devised in modern times and called the Nakba.
  
"Although Palestinian senior officials, leaders, educated circles, and public figures, whose patriotism is beyond doubt, have come to terms with the existence of the State of Israel, the aforementioned 80% of Arabs... do not accept this view, and consider it religious apostasy. Leaders of the [Arab] states in the region, and party leaders, inflame sentiment, entrancing them with the drumbeat of extremism.
  
"With the strident chorus of its secretaries, the Arab League ensures that every car crash in Gaza or the West Bank is interpreted as an Israeli conspiracy against the Arab future. This is because the Arab League... was established as a pan-Arab entity whose main function was to write reports and studies rife with distortions of fact so as to quell the conscience of any Arab who dared think independently and expunge [the concept of] the Nakba from his consciousness. [It has done] this instead of devising creative strategies for cultural and economic development, so as to improve the deteriorating standard of living in the Arab societies."

The Nakba is Rooted in a Culture that Does Not Recognize the Right of the Other


"Why did the partition resolution, which gave a state in Palestine to the Jews and one to the Arabs next to it, become the Nakba – [the star] that rises and sets daily over the Arab lands without emitting even the tiniest ray of light to illuminate the path for their peoples?
 
"Did the Jews have any less right to Palestine than the Arabs? What historic criteria can be used to determine the precedence of one [nation's] right over that of the other?
  
"Refusing to recognize the right of the other so as to usurp his rights was a governing principle of the Islamic conquests from the time of 'Omar bin Al-Khattab; during that historical period it was the norm. [But] at the turn of the [20th] century, this principle was abandoned and prohibited, because it sparked wars and [violent] conflict. The international community passed laws restricting the principle of non-acceptance of the other, in the founding principles of the League of Nations in 1919. Subsequently, with the U.N.'s establishment, these laws were developed [further], with appendices and commentary, to adapt them to the current historical era and to express the commonly accepted values of national sovereignty and peoples' right to self-determination.
  
"But because of their sentimental yearning for the past and zealous adherence to [old] criteria, the Arabs purged their hearts of any inclination to adjust to the spirit of the age. They thus became captives of the principle of non-acceptance of the other and of denying the other [the right] to live, [among] other rights.
  
"As a result, damage was done to the rights and interests of non-Arab nations and ethnic groups in the Arab lands – among them the Kurds, the Copts, and the Jews. [Thus,] the Arabs still treat the numerous minorities that came under their dominion 1,400 years ago in accordance with the laws from the era of Arab conquest.
  
"Despite the consequences of denying the other the right to exist, not to mention other rights – that is, [despite] the oppression, conflicts, wars, and instability [resulting from this]... the Arabs have steadfastly clung to their clearly chauvinist position. All problems in the region arising from minorities' increasing awareness of their rights have been dealt with by the Arabs in accordance with [the principle of non-acceptance]... [even] after the emergence of international institutions giving these rights legal validity, in keeping with the mentality and rationale of our time."

Refusing to Accept the Other: The Kurds in Iraq; the Christians in Egypt and Lebanon

The Kurds


"The denial of the Kurds' national rights by the Iraqi government, and the Arab League's support for it, has brought on wars lasting 50 years – that is, three-quarters of the life span of the state that arose in Iraq...
  
"After fabricating arguments to justify the [1921] combining of the Basra region with the Baghdad region in order to establish a new state in Iraq, British colonialist interests demanded that a large area historically populated by Kurds be added to the new state. [This was done] to satisfy the aspirations of King Faisal bin Al-Hussein [bin Ali Al-Hashemi], who had been proposed as head of state in return for protecting British interests in the region.
  
"In his persistent refusal to grant the Kurds their rights, from 1988 through 1989 Saddam Hussein murdered approximately 180,000 Kurds, in an organized [genocidal] campaign he called 'Al-Anfal.' He then used mustard gas against one [Kurdish] city (Halabja), killing its residents (5,000 people). The Arab conscience silently acquiesced to this human slaughterhouse, while Arab League secretary-general (Shadhli Al-Qalibi) called the international press coverage of these events 'a colonialist conspiracy against the Arabs and the Iraqi regime.'
  
"Syrian Kurds are considered second-class citizens, and are banned from using their language or [practicing] their culture in public."

The Christians in Egypt and Lebanon

"The ethnic oppression of the Kurds [in Iraq] was echoed by sectarian extremism against the Copts [in Egypt]. In both cases, the Arabs used the principle of denying the existence of the other so as to strip him of his rights.
  
"The Copts, who [initially] assimilated Arabs into their society, but who have over time themselves assimilated into Arab society, discover time and again that this assimilated state is but a surface shell, which quickly cracks whenever they demand equality... As a result, Egypt, as a state, is gripped by constant social tensions that keep rising to the surface and threatening to undermine its stability...
   
"Sectarian extremism in Egypt took the form of an organized party with the 1928 emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood, with the aim of splitting Egyptian society into two mutually hostile and conflicting parts. This was in line with the Arab religious and political principle of denying legitimacy to all non-Muslims or non-Arabs, [a principle practiced] since the Muslim armies reached Egypt in 639 [CE]...
  
"In Lebanon, the presence of armed Palestinian militias – which was in accordance with the decision of the Arab states – encouraged the formation of Lebanese militias, both Sunni and Shi'ite. Chanting slogans proclaiming Palestinian liberation, they frightened Christians by appearing armed in streets swarming with Lebanese [citizens] and tourists.
  
"This eventually led to a confrontation with Christian militias, which had also armed themselves out of fear of the pan-Arab slogans and fear for the [preservation of] the rights of the Christian sects.
  
"Lebanon was engulfed by an ugly 15-year civil war, that ended only after Syria, which had played an ignominious role as instigator [of the hostilities], attained full protectorate status over Lebanese affairs and the Lebanese people – [and this] took on the nature of colonialist hegemony...
  
"After the Lebanese were liberated from this [Syrian] control, in 2005 the clouds of civil war – albeit of a different kind – reappeared on the Lebanese horizon. The Arab League is making no effort to prevent the eruption [of this civil war] for two main reasons. First, the Syrian regime still supports ethnic tension, in order to regain control of Lebanon; and second, the current majority government, which opposes the renewed Syrian influence, is predominantly Christian...
  
"We had hoped that the Arab national conscience would recover from the illness afflicting it since the time of the Nakba, and that it would adopt [views] which, if not ahead of their time, would at least be appropriate to our time. But a group of journalists, writers, and several Arab historians guided by the principle of non-acceptance of the other has twisted the facts and concocted a false and gloomy history of the region – thereby trampling these dreams to the ground."

Jews Have a Rich and Ancient History in Palestine


"The Arabs see the Palestinian problem as exceedingly complicated, while it actually appears so only to them – [that  is], from the point of view of the Arabs' emotional attitudes and their national and religious philosophy. The Arabs have amassed false claims regarding their exclusive right to the Palestinian land, [and] these are based on phony arguments and on several axioms taken from written and oral sources – most of which they [themselves] created after the Islamic, and which they forbade anyone, Arab or foreigner, from questioning.
  
"When the Arabs agreed to U.N. arbitration... to resolve the Palestinian problem, it transpired that their axioms clearly contradicted reliable historical documents [that] this new international organization [had in its possession]. As a result, they wasted decades stubbornly defending the validity of their documents, which do not correspond to the officially accepted version of the region's history – which is based on concrete and solid evidence [such as] archaeological findings in the land of Palestine, the holy books of the three monotheistic religions, accounts by Roman, Greek, and Jewish historians...  and modern historical research..."

Jewish and Christian Ritual Sites in Jerusalem Predate Muslim Sites


"[A look at] the story of Al-Aqsa is now in order – a site considered holy by Muslim Arabs, who call it 'Al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif' [The Noble Sanctuary] and [believe that] it was set aside for them by Allah since the time of Adam.
  
"[This site] contains several places of worship, including the Dome of the Rock, built by the [Umayyad Caliph] 'Abd Al-Malik bin Marwan in the seventh century CE – that is, 72 years after the Muslim conquests. This religious public gathering place was erected over a prominent [foundation] stone at the peak of 'Mount Moriah.' [Mount Moriah] contains three ancient Jewish public worship sites, as well as [some] Christian sites...  The octagonal structure of the Dome of the Rock Mosque was constructed on the site of an ancient Byzantine church, adjoining Solomon's Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
  
"Since the majority of Muslims claim that the Temple Mount is an Islamic site to which no one else is entitled, they do not acknowledge the presence of Jewish and Christian places of worship predating the Dome of the Rock within its walls...
  
"The Arabs take great pride in their tolerance of and benign treatment of the Jews and Christians who lived under the Muslim rule since the Muslim conquests. This account is part of the distortions underpinning the edifice of the Arabs' religious and national culture. [Arab] writers and historians keep eulogizing this epoch... while the truth is the opposite of what they claim. [Indeed,] the Pact of 'Omar [compelled] the Jews and the Christians to choose between either abandoning their religion and embracing Islam, or paying the [poll] tax in return for being permitted to reside...  and receive protection of life and property in their homeland. [The Pact of 'Omar] allowed them to practice their religion, build new houses of worship, and repair the old ones [only] with the permission of a Muslim ruler, and subject to numerous conditions.
  
"In subsequent historical periods, the Muslims imposed [additional restrictions] on the members of [these] two religions: They forbade them to raise their voices during prayer; [they forced them] to conduct their prayers and religious ceremonies in closed areas so as not [to disturb] passersby; they forbade them to carry weapons, ride saddled horses, or build houses taller than those of the Muslims. [Christians and Jews] were required to show respect for the Muslims, e.g. by giving up their seat to a Muslim if he wanted it. They were banned from holding government posts or from working in 'sensitive' public places.
  
"The Koranic verses cursing the Jews and casting doubt on [the veracity of] their Holy Book [the Torah] promulgated a desire among Arabs to set themselves above the Jews who lived in their midst, humiliating and persecuting them even without pretext. In time, this treatment made large numbers of Jews abandon their cities and their land and emigrate... while those who stayed [in Palestine] until the 19th century remained marginalized, living among the Arabs like criminals in a foreign land... 
  
"The Arabs claim that the 'Wailing Wall' has been their property since the Prophet Muhammad tied his horse Al-Buraq to one of its supports when Allah transported him by night from the Holy Mosque in Mecca to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem...  Although this night-journey story seems dubious, Arab historiography after the advent of Islam contains such oddities as giving a horse the prerogative of making a wall weighing more than 2,000 tons into Muslim property. This is only one of thousands of examples of tales concocted by zealots, with which they swept away the Arab imagination.
  
"...When the U.N. resolution on the partition of Palestine was issued on November 29, 1947...  the Arabs refused to recognize it. They thereby rejected the state set out by the resolution as the right of the Palestinians and the Arabs, with the aim of establishing legal and historical equity. The Arabs called this resolution the Nakba, while their new states, formed several years before the State of Israel, launched the first war against Israel, in which regular military operations were combined with local attacks by gangs comprising Palestinians and Arabs from Arab regions near and far. [That war] ended in [the Arabs'] defeat. Persisting in their error, the Arabs established refugee camps for the Palestinians who had fled during and after the war...
  
"Chairman Mahmoud 'Abbas...  was the first Palestinian leader to acknowledge that the Christian church in Gaza plundered by Hamas gangs had stood there 'before [we] came to Gaza.' By this he meant 'we the Palestinians' – particularly the current Gaza residents, [the descendants of] Bedouins from the Sinai and the Arabian Peninsula and of others, of unknown origin. [These people were] attracted by the wealth of the new Islamic state that extended from Persia to Southern Ethiopia, and came after the Muslim conquests and set themselves up over the local population – Christians, Jews, Phoenicians, Byzantines, and the remnants of the Sumerians... 

Arabs Must Recognize the Jews' Right to Palestine


"In order to prevent more bloodshed among the innocent [population]...  and in order to keep the deteriorating situation in Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza, and the West Bank from making [these regions into] a quagmire that will spread to engulf all Arab states and societies, the Arabs must reassess the question of the Nakba and come up with a new, courageous vision for the region and for the future of its residents.
  
"[This vision] must involve public recognition of the Jews' legitimate right to their state – which is based on historical fact – instead of [recognition] of the writings filled with anger and demagogy produced and formed into an ideology by the confused [Arab] consciousness – a consciousness built upon lies, myths, and distortions stemming from the principle of non-acceptance of the other.
  
"The most important factor in strengthening such a new vision is [the adoption of] a principle [requiring] official condemnation of all individuals, groups, companies, religious and political parties, and totalitarian regimes that built their glory and hollow leaderships upon the notion of the Nakba, and which are always ready to absorb other false claims and fabrications.
  
"This must be done, so that a modern Arab face is turned to the world – [a face reflecting] ethical values that will not allow any Arab, under any pretext, to oppress his son or his brother who differs from him in religion, ethnicity, or ideology."

Endnotes:  
(1) www.ahewar.org (formerly www.rezgar.com), December 7, 2007.
(2) 'Aref 'Alwan is the first Arab author to publish his novels on the Internet. His doing so was the subject of his January 20, 2005 interview in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.
 

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

The truth is...






Statement by Amb. Levanon to the Human Rights Council, Geneva

6 Mar 2008
In the 12 resolutions regarding the Palestinian-Israeli situation that have been passed by this Council, not one has made even passing mention of the relentless aggression against Israel.
Statement by Ambassador Itzhak Levanon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, Geneva
7th Regular Session - Human Rights Council
Response to Resolution A/HRC/7/1
6 March 2008
 
Mr. President,
I cannot compete with the exaggerations, distortions and inaccuracies I have heard here today. I must admit that I don't have such a fertile imagination, and am unable to paint a rhetorical picture which doesn't reflect reality. What, yes, I can do is to tell you and the council the truth, the simple truth.
 
The truth is, that the Hamas terrorists took over the Gaza Strip by force, and established an irredentist entity. That, they have smuggled lethal weapons into this territory with the sole purpose to kill Israelis. That, since the beginning of this year, in only two months, they have fired 671 missiles at civilians, women and children. That, they received these missiles from countries in the Middle East, such as the Iranian-made 122mm Grad missile. That, Hamas is committing war crimes and collectively punishing a population of a quarter of a million citizens living in Ashkelon, Sderot, the Negev and Netivot. That, they call for the physical destruction of my country and translate these words with deeds. That, they brought Al-Qaeda to the Gaza Strip, a fact confirmed by the President of the Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Abbas, in the London El Hayat newspaper on 27 February 2008.
 
The truth is that 50% of the population of Sderot suffers from anxiety and stress. That, more than half of the juvenile population endures sleeping disorders. That, the children of southern Israel are screaming "I want to live." That, Israel has left no stone unturned in our attempts to alert the international community that the situation is untenable. That, we have knocked on the door of every embassy and every chancellery. And the world remained silent.
 
The truth is, that in the 12 resolutions regarding the Palestinian-Israeli situation that have been passed by this Council, not one has made even passing mention of the relentless aggression against Israel. Not one of them has called explicitly to halt the deluge of Kassam rockets and Grad missiles. Not one of them attempted to recognize that Palestinians do not have a monopoly on suffering; not one of them acknowledged that the children of Israel have the same right to safety as Palestinian children. Not one of them attempted to empathize with the cries of an Israeli mother protecting her children, or the fear and trauma experienced while running to a bomb shelter, knowing that only 30 seconds separates you from death.
 
Mr. President,
Israel will not be intimidated by critical words of one-sided resolutions. We have the fundamental right to live and the essential right to self-defense. It is our obligation to protect our citizens and we will do so. The passage of yet another resolution will not waive the problem, and will not bring stability to the region. The solution, Mr. President, is deceptively simple: Hamas aggression must stop immediately. The firing of missiles must terminate completely.
 
When the Palestinian permanent observer takes the floor, I wonder on behalf of whom is he acting? Is it on behalf of his President Abbas, who seeks peace and stability with Israel? [huh???Or does he defend the Hamas terrorists who spread suffering and desolation?
 
Mr. President,
Another routine resolution does not show temerity. A country making patronizing statements at the High Level Segment does not demonstrate strong moral fiber. A true show of courage would be displayed if the members of this Council would look with objective eyes, would think in a non-selective way, and would decide impartially. Yet, because the self-serving members of the OIC and Arab Group who hold a majority can block any courageous steps, that is unlikely to happen here. For those who constantly ask why we do not engage with the Council more often, it is precisely because of circumstances such as this.

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Warsaw Uprising April 15 1944

From a source in our [Jewish] community
 
Today, April 15th, a special ceremony was held in the city of Warsaw, Poland. It was a memorial ceremony dedicated to those many Jews who fell in the Warsaw Ghetto Revolt on Pesach of 1944. Both the President of Poland and of Israel (Shimon Peres,) attended and both spoke. So did many others attend, including contingents from both the Polish and Israeli armies, and residents of Warsaw and of nearby Polish cities. There were also other Israeli, Polish, German and US diplomats and citizens of those countries including groups of visiting Israeli youths.  
 
The Warsaw Ghetto revolt occurred during the Pesach holiday time when a few thousand Jews, mostly unarmed, rose in revolt against the very well armed Nazi war machine. They knew that their chances of survival lay somewhere between zero and one out of ten to one out of twenty, yet they were willing to give their lives fighting against the anti-Semite Nazis who fought for Adolph Hitler and his fellow murderers. My father - or perhaps he is your grandfather, or great grandfather, Nathan, was born in Poland and he and his family left Poland in the early 1920's to settle in the United States. Most Polish Jews were not so fortunate. But even he, my father, lived through one pogrom, during World War One. I am also sure that we, the Weissman family, must have had distant relatives who remained in Poland and were murdered during the Holocaust. Chance are, if you are Jewish, you lost family there.
 
The local Polish non-Jewish population did very little to assist the Jewish rebels in the Warsaw Ghetto. At best a relatively few pistols were smuggled in to help the Jews in the ghetto - perhaps even a few, very few, rifles.  Mostly they fought using Molotov cocktails also known as gasoline bombs and some light weapons captured from German Army soldiers killed at the beginning of the revolt by the Jewish rebels - who knew they would most likely not survive the struggle and that even if they were captured by the Nazis they would be either be murdered right away or be sent to the extermination camps. The leader of the Jewish rebels was a young man by the name of Mordechai Anilevitch. His name is commemorated here in Israel at a place called "Yad Mordechai." (The"a" in Yad is pronounced like the "o" in odd.)
 
But, what does it have to do with us? Our relationships to events that occurred during WW 2 is quite distant you say ? How does it really affect us, you ask? It affects us no less than those who worked in Manhattan were affected by 9/11 . They too probably thought that anti-Semitism anti-Western-ism, (by Muslim jihadists) had nothing to do with them - yet they were wrong, very wrong - and some of them (those who worked in the Trade Center towers,) including non-Jews paid for their naivete - with their lives on Sept. 11. Looking the other way does not always protect us from those who have a goal of genocide and conquest.  Sometimes we have to listen to the words being spoken by those who openly express their hatred for us and take action to protect ourselves.
 
Hitler's allies are not all dead yet, many of them still survive and in fact, even after WW2 and Hitler's defeat - there were very serious pogroms in Poland against Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who had returned there to find their homes had been occupied by non-Jewish Poles. Today there are still Catholic clergymen who proclaim their anti-Semitism and express anti Semitism in public sermons.
 
Injustice and prejudice should be something we take always take notice of and actively oppose, history has shown us that too much is at stake to ignore hatreds danger.
Please pass this on in honor of those who died and in respect to protecting those of us who are still unwilling to come to terms with the dangers that face us today.




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Report: Tehran's Top Cop and anti-vice crusader caught with six nude whores in whorehouse raid

This is not supposed to be a parody, but it might be.  It is a breaking story. Here are two versions, the first published April 15, followed by the "fictional" parody. Make of it what you will.

1. Tehran police chief in charge of fighting vice 'caught with 6 nude women'

(GULF IN THE NEWS)  

Agencies
Published: April 15, 2008, 14:38

Tehran: A spokesman for Iran's judiciary is confirming that Tehran's police chief has been detained and is presently "under investigation".

But Ali Reza Jamshidi on Tuesday is refusing to detail the circumstances of General Reza Zarei's arrest.

Local media report that Zarei was taken to jail after he was caught with six nude women by a police raid on an underground local brothel.

Zarei had been in charge of fighting vice.

Media reports say he was forced to resign last month after being caught in the police raid.

Jamshidi says he is not authorized to provide more information since legal proceedings have begun in Zarei's case.

2. Here is a post from a month ago:

Tehran Brothel Bust Nets Naked Top Cop with 6 Prostitutes

  Iranian Farda News reports Reza Zarei, police chief of Tehran, has been arrested in a police raid on a Tehran brothel. Accounts say that Zarei was found in the nude with a half dozen also nude prostitutes.

Farda News is said to be closely allied to Tehran's mayor and former police chief Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf. After the raid, Rezi resigned from his position as police chief.

Reports on the Iranian website Gooya say the raid was ordered by chief judicial authority Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi. There are reports of hundreds of arrests in recent months for disrespect of Islamic code.

And here is the supposed parody, labeled as "fiction"

Written by queen mudder
Story written: 16 March 2008

Tehran, Iran - (Reuterus & Ass Mess) Iran's top morality enforcer and head of the dreaded secret religious police has been arrested in a brothel run by the Holy Roman Emperor VIP escort agency's international division.

Brigadier General Ali Reza Zarei was caught in a similar credit card sting that nabbed New York Governor Eliot Spitzer last week.

Zarei, 69, has been described as the scourge of Tehran's paranoid zealots who roam the streets looking for women whose veils may have slipped from the heads.

CCTV camera surveillance caught Zarei along with Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, Tehran's Mayor, former police chief and a top contender for President Ahmadinejad's job in next year's elections.

666 hours of videotape was seized along with half a tonne of sex-related paraphernalia, five hundred kilos of cocaine, over $4 million in counterfeit $100 bills and 'enough marijuana to keep the smoking population of Jamaica happy until Christmas 2020.'

Silda Wall Spitzer is 50.

The story above is a satire or parody. It is entirely fictitious.

Not entirely fictitious, maybe.

Iran's deceptive commercial practices

Iran's Deceptive Commercial Practices

Emanuele Ottolenghi

Perspectives Papers No. 41, April 15, 2008


Executive Summary: Sanctions against Iran focus on nuclear and ballistic missile technology, drawing a distinction between legitimate and illegitimate trade. But a closer look at Iran's commercial practices proves that Iran is systematically abusing its access to Western technology. Technology it is acquiring for civilian projects or for legitimate policing activities is being diverted in order to bolster Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and its overwhelming economic role in Iran; and also for the development of Iran's clandestine nuclear activities. In short, Western technology sold to Iran is being utilized in ways that Iran's Western suppliers have never dreamed of, even in their worst nightmares. The current reality is that for a healthy profit and without moral compunctions, Western companies are legally selling Iran tools to repress its own citizens, to bully its neighbors, and to destabilize the entire region.


Iran's Human Rights Violations

In the seven weeks since the UN called for an international moratorium of executions, in late December 2007, Iran hung more than 60 people, frequently in public. Recent pictures, which the Iranian regime has now ordered off the internet to avoid international embarrassment, show convicts hanging from cranes made by such Japanese companies as TADANO, KATO, and UNIC. Many European companies sell similar equipment to Iran. Nor do they necessarily sell these products knowing Iran will turn construction equipment into death machines. Accusing them of complicity is like accusing, say, Volkswagen, of complicity with bank robbers if they happen to drive a VW Golf while escaping the scene of the crime.

Of course, there is nothing illegal about selling cranes and thousands of other products to Iran. But when it comes to Iran, Western companies should know better: they are dealing with masters of deception. Iran has been executing tens of thousands of people, since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, by using cranes. Deal with Tehran and sooner or later your company's logo will experience an embarrassing moment of exposure.

Iran's Systematic Diversion of Technology

Even if deals do not violate either UN sanctions or export controls over dual use technology, Iran is sure to divert perfectly legitimate products for sinister purposes. Legally, there is no complicity with Iran's behavior. But the legality of such transactions only highlights the inefficacy of the current sanctions' regime against Iran and the consequent lightness of the moral burden affecting western companies and their economic self-interest.

Examples abound. Wirth – a German producer of tunnel boring machinery – proudly boasts on its website that "When Barcelona receives a new metro system, a bridge is built over the Orinoco in Venezuela or a new water supply system is created in the Iranian mountains of Isfahan, Wirth machines are used." Indeed they are. The problem is that one of Wirth's project clients in Iran is Sahel Consulting Engineers – a company owned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Wirth has so far declined to comment on the matter. BAFA, the German export controls' agency, has confirmed that the machines sold to Sahel are not subject to embargo – a perfectly transparent deal, with all the seals of approval, to be used in a harmless civilian project.

Seli – an Italian company in the same line of business – also provided machinery and technicians for the previous phase of the same tunnel project – which was done through a consortium of which Wirth was a partner. The deal, worth 8.5 million Euro, was completed in 2005. The client was Ghaem, another IRGC subsidiary. The deal was similarly not subject to any restrictions or embargoes. Seli is involved in other important projects in Iran.

Another, much bigger contract is the Kerman Water Tunnel Project, a five-year deal worth 134.6 million Euro signed in 2004 with the active involvement, again, of Sahel Consulting Engineers. Italian and German tunneling equipment was thus sold to the IRGC and made available, once the water tunnel was completed, for other projects the IRGC may wish to undertake. Intelligence reports have repeatedly suggested that much of Iran's clandestine nuclear program is being built deep underground, in bunkers that are accessible through tunnels – tunnels which only technology such as the one provided by Wirth and Seli can build. What guarantee did Western governments have that Wirth and Seli's IRGC clients would not later use their machinery to advance Iran's military ambitions?

Legitimate Business Projects – Illegitimate Business Partners

In other cases, European companies sell advanced technology to IRGC companies for huge infrastructure projects in a no-bid context: Austrian Andritz VA Tech Hydro, Finnish Poÿrÿ, and German KTI-Plersch are all involved in different technical aspects of dam building in Iran – and all list IRGC companies as their clients. Not all deals involve dual use technology – but by dealing with the IRGC, European companies help them flourish economically. Such examples are not confined to the civilian sector. IRGC units carrying RPG launchers for hit-and-run action routinely ride Japanese Honda and Austrian KTM motorbikes; Iran's military employs Italian-made IVECO trucks as missile launchers; the IRGC uses Mercedes trucks for its transports and mounts machine guns on Toyota Land Cruisers. Not the best flattery, for Western products.

Selling Weapons to Iran – At Our Own Peril

Even when military equipment is supplied to Iran under tight controls, things go wrong. In 2003, Great Britain and Italy supplied night-imaging equipment to Iran's anti-drug units to fight drug smugglers in Iran's eastern provinces, under a United Nations Drug Control Office approved scheme. Israeli troops later found similar equipment inside Hizballah's headquarters in south Lebanon.

In 2005, Austria's arms manufacturer, Steyr-Mannlicher sold Iran 800 .50 caliber sniper rifles to be used by Iran's police drug fighting units in their war against drug smugglers. At the time, the US protested the deal and put sanctions on Steyr-Mannlicher – but the Austrian Minister of Defense called the deal "unimpeachable" and confirmed it. When 108 such guns were found in insurgents' safe houses in Baghdad by American troops, a small media storm ensued, but the Austrians – both company and diplomats – successfully challenged the initial media reports demanding evidence that those were the same weapons.

What eventually transpired was that the media were wrong – the weapons were perfect copies, made in Iran and China. Soon after the delivery, Iran's defense industries engaged in reverse engineering for the sniper rifles and quickly managed to produce its own version – which the IRGC is now busy distributing to insurgents across the Middle East. Once more, Western technology, sold under license and for ostensibly legitimate purposes, abetted Iran's sinister activities, given Iran's systematically fraudulent behavior.

"I Sold Boats, Not Weapons!"

The same happened with the IRGC speedboats involved in the recent naval incident in the Straits of Hormuz – according to diplomatic sources the boats are made in Iran, but frame and design come from Italy's FB Design, a famous producer of racing boats that sold Iran its patrol boat "Levriero" along with frames and blueprints under a now revoked government license. The owner recently protested his innocence in an interview: "I sold boats, not weapons!"

With Iran, unfortunately, there is no such distinction. European and other Western companies sell Iran a variety of sophisticated technological tools which apparently fulfill harmless but profitable deals outside the purview of the UN sanctions' regime. Soon after the merchandise reaches Iran, the regime systematically diverts it from legitimate activities to illegitimate ones. A recent Financial Action Task Force statement encourages its financial institutions to apply "enhanced due diligence" in dealing with Iran, due to its deceptive financial practices. This is because Western credit lines, which may well finance apparently legitimate operations, in fact involve money laundering and the financing of terrorism and Iran's ballistic and nuclear programs.

What the above examples prove is that the principle of enhanced due diligence must now be expanded by Europeans to apply to all trade with Iran. This is true even when Iranian interlocutors appear innocuous and well intentioned, and even when legally speaking there are no impediments to exporting certain products to Iran. The current reality is that for a healthy profit and without moral compunctions, Western companies are legally selling Iran tools to repress its own citizens, to bully its neighbors, and to destabilize the entire region.

Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi is the Director of the Transatlantic Institute, a Brussels-based think tank (www.transatlanticinstitute.org). This article is based on Dr. Ottolenghi's lecture at BESA as part of the Annual Leonard Wolinsky Lecture series.


BESA Perspectives is published through the generosity
of the Littauer Foundation.