Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, September 18, 2004

Ottawa Citizen - Calling a Terrorist a Terrorist

We reject the argument. Terrorism is a technical term. It describes a modus operandi, a tactic. We side with security professionals who define terrorism as the deliberate targeting of civilians in pursuit of a political goal. Those who bombed the nightclub in Bali were terrorists. Suicide bombers who strap explosives to their bodies and blow up people eating in a pizza parlour are terrorists. The men and women who took a school full of hostages in Beslan, Russia, and shot some of the children in the back as they tried to flee to safety were terrorists. We as journalists do not violate our impartiality by describing them as such.

Ironically, it is supposedly neutral terms like "militant" that betray a bias, insofar as they have a sanitizing effect. Activists for various political causes can be "militant," but they don't take children hostage.

There is a popular misconception that violence committed for a legitimate cause cannot be terrorism. That's incorrect. Sikhs may, or may not, have legitimate complaints against the Indian government, but the 1985 Air India bombing was a terrorist act, because it deliberately targeted civilians. Journalists betray neither a pro- nor anti-Sikh bias to report it as such.

A newspaper's mandate is to present accurate reports. The Citizen receives wire service reports from many news organizations; in order to ensure consistency in the terms used by these various sources, editors sometimes change words such as "militant" to "terrorist," if it more accurately describes the person committing a violent act. Anyone who deliberately targets civilians in pursuit of a political goal is a terrorist, and we use that term.

Sometimes, an editor will insert a sentence into a wire service report to ensure readers have the full context of the story. For example, some wire reports will describe Hamas or some like-minded group as fighting Israeli "occupation." In fact, Hamas is openly dedicated to the destruction of the entire Jewish state. An editor is quite right to contextualize the story by adding that Hamas views all of Israel as "occupied" land.

Newspapers accused of misusing word 'terrorist'

OTTAWA - Canada's largest newspaper chain, CanWest Global, is being criticized over its use of the word 'terrorist' in stories about the Middle East.

The owner of the National Post and dozens of other papers across Canada is being accused of inappropriately inserting the word into newswire copy dealing with the Middle East, thereby changing the meaning of those stories.

One of the world's leading news agencies, Reuters, said CanWest newspapers have been altering words and phrases in stories dealing with the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Reuters told CBC News it would complain to CanWest about the issue.

The global managing editor for Reuters, David Schlesinger, called such changes unacceptable. He said CanWest had crossed a line from editing for style to editing the substance and slant of news from the Middle East.

'If they want to put their own judgment into it, they're free to do that, but then they shouldn't say that it's by a Reuters reporter,' said Schlesinger.

As an example, Schlesinger cited a recent Reuters story, in which the original copy read: '...the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which has been involved in a four-year-old revolt against Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank.'

In the National Post version of the story, printed Tuesday, it became: '...the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a terrorist group that has been involved in a four-year-old campaign of violence against Israel.'

Neither the National Post nor CanWest returned calls.

Shana Tova!

Have a great, safe and sweet New Year!

Why Israel Is A Land Of Tech Promise -- Again

After a years-long slump, Israel is seeing a slew of IPOs, mergers, and new startups

Israel's high-tech sector finally is emerging from a long financial drought. On Aug. 25, Cisco Systems Inc. acquired P-Cube Inc., a Tel Aviv developer of network-traffic-management hardware, for $200 million. The deal was Cisco's second in Israel in three months, and it's not the only Silicon Valley player on the prowl. 'There's a lot of talk about several of the major global technology players on the verge of cutting deals in the next few weeks,' says Gilay Dolev, senior analyst at D&A High Tech Information Ltd., an industry-analysis firm based just outside Tel Aviv.

Why the renewed interest in Israel? First, for a small country, Israel has lots of startups. And startups, unlike big Western tech giants, didn't have the luxury of cutting back research & development to get through the downturn. So the Israelis kept innovating even as the global tech industry swooned and fighting surged between Israelis and Palestinians. Now there are lots of small survivors with leading-edge technology in areas such as Internet security, wireless broadband, and medical devices. No wonder acquisition activity is up by some 25% over the past year.

The global recovery has energized Israel's so-called silicon wadis, the collective term for the dozen-plus high-technology parks scattered throughout the country. Tech exports surged 20% in the first six months of the year, to more than $6 billion. And the Tel-Tech 15 index is up 48% in the past 12 months.

Israeli high-tech companies also are returning to Wall Street after a lengthy hiatus. So far this year three outfits -- Lipman Electronic Engineering Ltd., which develops electronic payment systems, PowerDsine Ltd. (PDSN ), a maker of integrated circuits for telecoms, and Syneron Medical Ltd. (ELOS ) -- have joined the over 70 local high-tech outfits traded on the NASDAQ. 'There are at least a half-dozen initial public offerings and a number of follow-on offerings ready to go to market by the end of the year,' says Leonard G. Rosen, Lehman Brothers Inc. managing director and head of the investment bank's Israeli business.

One of Israel's successful tech entrepreneurs is Giora Yaron, co-founder of P-Cube. The 56-year-old physicist has launched four companies, two of which he sold to Cisco. Before picking up P-Cube in August, Cisco paid $118 million for Pentacom Ltd. in 2000. 'There's no secret recipe for successful startups. It's just having the right technology when the big boys need it,' claims Yaron. In the case of P-Cube, Cisco was hearing from its own customers about the need to integrate the Israeli startup's technology into its networking routers.

Cisco's love affair with Israeli high tech began in 1998, when it acquired Class Data Systems, a maker of quality-control software, for $50 million. Since then it has ponied up nearly $1 billion for seven Israeli startups, three of them in the past few months. '[The Israelis] have a strong tradition of innovation in engineering and a strong technical tradition. It's similar to what we see in Silicon Valley,' says Ned Hooper, senior director for corporate development for Cisco.

DOWN-TO-EARTH VALUATIONS
Despite the new deals, no one anticipates a return to the heady days of 2000. In June of that year, Lucent Technologies Inc. bought Chromatis Networks for a hefty $4.8 billion, the most ever paid for an Israeli startup. By contrast, 17 of 31 deals in the past year have been for less than $10 million. 'Valuations have come down to earth,' says Zeev Holtzman, founding partner of Tel Aviv-based Giza Venture Capital, a leading local fund.

That's one of the main factors drawing venture capitalists to Israel. Industry experts predict local venture funds will raise over $1 billion this year, with most of the funds coming from American and European institutional investors. The wadis certainly need the rain."

Half of Israelis on High-Speed Internet

The majority of Israeli homes now have Internet access, with 57 percent on line, according to a new survey by the Smith Research and Consulting Institute for Tel Aviv University's Center for Internet Research. A year ago, the rate was only 46%.

The representative sample of 500 adults (margin of error 4.5 percent) found that surfing for information is the most popular activity among Israeli Web users (44% said this was their primary activity), while sending and receiving e-mail are in second place (28% as a primary activity), and surfing consumer sites is third (8% as a primary activity). The use of the Internet for downloading programs and games and participating in chat groups or ICQ immediate messaging was found to be only 4% each.

Of the 57% who use Internet from home, 50% have a high-speed line (ADSL or cable), and only 7% use a regular phone line to reach their browser and e-mail server.

Fouad Ajami: Facing up to unholy terror

Worth reading.

Letter urges US anti-Semitism monitor

More than 100 religious leaders, former US officials, writers, artists, and academics, have written to US Secretary of State Colin Powell to protest the State Department's opposition to a congressional bill that would require the department to set up an office dedicated to combating anti-Semitism, and issue an annual report on anti-Semitism around the world.

The State Department has said it opposes the bill because it would show favoritism by "extending exclusive status to one religious or ethnic group."

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-California), a Holocaust survivor, authored the proposed Global Anti-Semitism Awareness Act.

"The State Department's position on the Lantos legislation carries troubling echoes of the past," says the September 10 letter organized by former Democratic congressman Stephen Solarz and the Pennsylvania-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

The institute, the letter says, "has documented how, during the Holocaust, the State Department did its best to downplay the Jewish identity of Hitler's victims – even though the Nazi regime had clearly singled out Jews for annihilation."

In a letter to Lantos in July, the State Department's Bureau of Legislative Affairs said the Department "strongly agrees that anti-Semitism is a problem, and one that the US Government is working vigorously to eliminate."

It noted, however, that the department already details anti-Semitic acts and attitudes through its annual human rights and international religious freedom reports.

A separate reporting requirement on anti-Semitism "could erode our credibility by being interpreted as favoritism in human rights reporting," it said.

Those who signed the letter to Powell included former secretary of housing Jack Kemp, former US ambassador to the UN Jeane Kirkpatrick, former CIA director James Woolsey, former national security adviser Anthony Lake, Yale University Divinity School Dean Harold Attridge, writer Cynthia Ozick, and Richard Perle, a former Pentagon adviser who is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Many who signed the critique, like Perle, are strong supporters of the Bush administration.

Lawmakers Blast European Hamas Support

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers criticized Europeans for supporting charities linked to Hamas and Hezbollah on Tuesday, with one saying it was like doing business with the "political wing of the Nazi party" while rejecting the military wing.

The criticism was leveled at European Union counterterrorism coordinator Gijs de Vries as he appeared with American officials at a Capitol Hill review of how well the United States and its allies are working together to fight terrorism.

Once again, this administration hides the truth from the American people, John F. Kerry told seniors. (Gerald Herbert -- AP)
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William Pope, a State Department anti-terrorism coordinator, told two House International Relations subcommittees that the EU as a whole "has been reluctant to take steps to block the assets of charities linked to Hamas and Hezbollah, even though these groups repeatedly engage in deadly terrorist attacks, and the charitable activities help draw recruits."

The groups get "a considerable portion of their funding from Europe," Pope said in a written statement to the panel, saying Europe and the United States have "differing perspectives on the dividing line between legitimate political or charitable activity and support for terrorists groups."

Funds the groups allegedly raise for humanitarian purposes are easily diverted for terrorist acts, Pope said.

Rep. Robert I. Wexler, D-Fla., told de Vries it was hard for some Americans to understand the distinction between political and military wings of the organizations.

"Would you have thought it acceptable for a European citizen to do business with the political wing of the Nazi Party and divide that separate from the military wing?" asked Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif.

"And if not, why is it OK for Europeans to provide aid and comfort to those who have so much blood on their hands by saying, 'Oh, these are just the politicians?'"

Arab FMs support Syrian occupation of Lebanon

CAIRO, Sept. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Arab foreign ministers on Tuesday voiced 'full solidarity' with Lebanon against any attempt to sever its ties with Syria.

'The ministers show full solidarity with Lebanon against any attempt to hit historic relations with Syria,' said a statement issued at the end of a regular meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo.

The ministers also renewed their rejection to a unilateral US sanction against Syria, the statement said.

On Sept. 2, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution demanding respect for Lebanon's political independence and withdrawal of Syrian forces from the country.

The United States, which accuses Syria of exerting too much influence over extending Lebanese incumbent President Emile Lahoud's six-year term, has circulated a draft resolution to other Security Council members.

Syria sent troops to help quell a year-old civil war in Lebanonin 1976 and the forces remained through 14 years of fighting and are still deployed in the country.

Lebanon's government has reiterated that the presence of the Syrian army has been a stabilizing factor since its 1975-90 civil war."

German minister backs Israel's fence

The controversial security fence Israel has been building as a defensive barrier against terrorist raids originating in Palestine has received support from a surprising source: Germany's Interior Minister Otto Schily.

Mr Schily is quoted in Deutsche Welle as saying that the barrier is effective because it has led to a drop in attacks on Israel. He also rejected comparisons between the Israeli fence and the Berlin Wall.

'Those who draw comparisons with the Berlin Wall are wrong, because it does not shut people in and deprive them of their freedom,' Schily told Deutschlandfunk radio on Monday, DW said. 'Its purpose is to protect Israel from terrorists.'

Speaking from Israel where he is attending an international conference on terrorism, Mr Schilly said the security barrier was the result of decades of failed efforts to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from crossing the border and attacking Israel.

'All the efforts undertaken over many years, even decades, have unfortunately failed to bear fruit,' he said, according to DW. 'So it is understandable that Israel should try to erect a protective barrier, which furthermore has shown it works, and I think that the criticism is far from the reality.'

In the radio interview, Schily also insisted the security barrier should be referred to as a 'fence' and not a 'wall,' as it is often called in Germany, DW said.

The statements were harshly criticised by Palestinian spokesmen who said the remarks were inconsistent with the official position of the German government. But a spokesman for the German foreign ministry indicated that the concerns Germany had over the fence were primarily about its route, not its construction, DW said.
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Bad Statistics

If they polled 1300 people, of whom 3% described themselves as "extreme right-wing", then all of their questions to this group was to a group of less than 50 people. Statistically, this is a joke - there is a reason that surveys use a thousand people, not fifty. If they find 1000 "extreme right wingers" and get the same results then this would be a story.

SUPPORT FOR POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN ISRAEL RISING

Ongoing research studying tendencies of political violence in Israeli Jewish circles suggests that there is a steady rise in the support for political violence among the radical right.

A series of polls has been carried out on this topic by Haifa University’s National Security Studies Center.

The most recent poll was conducted in September. It polled 1,613 of Israel’s Jewish population with a margin of error of between three and five percent.

One in every four declared supporters of the extreme right wing believes that sending threats and hate mail to public figures may at times be necessary in order to stop a dangerous political measure.

The term ‘supporter of extreme right wing’ was determined according to the interviewees’ declared political stand (choosing from the options ‘extreme right wing,’ ‘right wing,’ ‘center,’ ‘left wing,’ ‘extreme left wing.’) Some 3% of those polled declared they belonged to the extreme right wing.

Some 18.5 percent of radical right wing supporters believe that when a political disaster is imminent and all means of protest have been exhausted, physical harm to politicians may be forgivable. This is a 4% rise compared to a similar survey conducted in May 2004, and an 8% rise compared to a poll conducted in February 2003.

Of the radical right supporters, 14.8% said they believe there are situations in which there is no option but to use weapons to prevent the government from carrying out its policy. From the total Jewish population in Israel, 9.6% expressed support for this statement. (This also makes little sense, if only 3% are considered "extreme right-wing." - EZ)

The findings are particularly pertinent since the Israeli government is planning to withdraw from Gaza and security forces may encounter physical resistance by those opposing the evacuation.

Hamapatz Hagadol (Safire)

Israel must brace for 'big bang'

WASHINGTON -- In Hebrew, physicists call the theory about the formation of the universe the hamapatz hagadol -- the "big bang." In Israeli politics, that phrase is used today to describe the potential realignment of parties and power.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to "disengage" from Palestinians now under the spell of terrorist leaders brought this simmering pot to a boil.

Sharon's plan calls for completing a security fence to protect almost all Israelis and pulling back into the well-defended territory the remainder of those now most vulnerable in Gaza and the West Bank.

Once a divisive figure, the former general is supported in this plan by an overwhelming majority of Israeli citizens. Like him, they are realists: Israel needs defensible borders and cannot absorb Palestinians nearby.

But 7,000 deeply religious and courageous Jewish settlers -- who live amid the 1.2 million Arabs in Gaza -- see this as a double-cross. Within the Likud Party that Sharon founded three decades ago, they are an admired force of pioneers. As a result, though Arik wins landslides in national elections, he loses to supporters of settlers in referendums within his rightist party.

The day of decision in the Knesset to adopt his disengagement plan is near. (Coincidentally, it will be in the first week in November, as elections are held in the United States.)

The level of fury and viciousness is worse than in the days before the assassination of Yitzak Rabin. Sharon, the lifelong embodiment of Israeli security, is being reviled as a traitor and threatened with death. Members of the Israeli Defense Forces are urged to disobey orders to dislodge settlers when moving day comes. Febrile minds in the settler minority even warn of civil war.

At a moment like this, Sharon expects members of his coalition Cabinet to speak out for his plan. They vote his way -- 9-1 in the Cabinet this week to richly compensate the settlers being moved -- but some of the Likudniks are keeping mum, lest they upset the hardest-line members of their own party.

Benjamin Netanyahu, who as Sharon's finance minister is becoming the Jewish Alexander Hamilton, has found a way to hedge. On one hand, he votes in the Cabinet for disengagement, even as his family denounces it; on the other, Bibi proposes delaying the November disengagement vote until a national referendum can be held.

That straddle has Sharon seething. He knows the momentum of battle, and sees delay as destructive. A referendum requires legislation, with lengthy debate, a probable filibuster and a wrangle over whether Arabs can participate. He believes that deviation from his timetable -- surrendering to threats of violence from within -- would mean six months of paralysis and a loss of the initiative.

I sent in a single query to Arik about Bibi's suggestion. An aide passed back his response: "I hear all sorts of suggestions, but not one word from him about the incitement to civil war. Not one word."

I think there will be no referendum or election before the Knesset vote to disengage. Sharon's plan will carry with the support of either the Shimon Peres or Ehud Barak faction of Labor, the centrist Shinui Party and Arik's followers.

Now let's consider the possibility of a political big bang. That convergence of forces on the disengagement vote could be the genesis of "New Likud." The anti-Arik faction of Likud would go its own way, hitching up with several of the religious parties.

My unsourced guess is that Bibi would choose the New Likud, which would reflect the Israeli majority. After Arik retires, like Cincinnatus, to his farm -- and with a new Palestinian leader ready to become a partner in creating a peaceful neighborhood -- the Hamiltonian Bibi would compete for leadership with the Sharon loyalist Ehud Olmert, former mayor of the still-undivided Jerusalem.

Thus, the Israeli system would have the gall to divide into three manageable parts, with the center party making deals for a majority with left and right. Not a bad way to run a parliamentary democracy.

Having had the chutzpah to predict the coming hamapatz hagadol, let me wish a peaceful Rosh Hashana to all.

William Safire's e-mail address is safire@nytimes.com