Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, February 04, 2005

Garry Trudeau has lost his sense of humor

Back in the seventies, Doonesbury was funny. But nowadays it is just mean and sad.

The current series of strips shows BD, the football coach turned injured Iraqi soldier, telling his shrink that he wants to kill every cab driver who looks Arab. That as an instinctive reaction to his fighting in Iraq, that everyone who looks different is the enemy.

What an incredible insult to the US military! In one stroke Trudeau has slimed all soldiers as bigots. And, one may add, without a shred of evidence. I have yet to see a soldier in downtown Bagdhad shooting everyone on the street who looks Arab.

Shameful.

Suicidal Jews: When Will They Learn?

By CINNAMON STILLWELL

A remarkable thing happened in the Bay Area last month. San Francisco and Berkeley, two cities known for their anti-American, anti-Israel, and increasingly anti-Semitic character, hosted rallies against global terrorism. The mangled wreckage of the Jerusalem #19 bus, destroyed in a suicide bombing and displayed at both events, brought the reality of terrorism closer to home. It was a powerful reminder of what too many, especially in the Bay Area, still label acceptable.

One could be forgiven for assuming that these rallies had enjoyed the support of the Jewish community, but instead the opposite was true. An inordinate amount of disdain was directed at rally supporters, the bulk of it from Jews. Jewish organizations, individuals, and even rabbis did everything in their power to either ignore the rallies, urge people not to attend, or to condemn those who took part. But their hostility was misplaced, to say the least.

Although the rallies were all encompassing, it was obvious that at the heart of the matter were Jews and those that hate them. After all, what else motivated the suicide bomber of bus #19? Or the Arab protesters across the street from the rally in Berkeley screaming, “Go back to Germany”? Why else were their children carrying signs accusing Jews of “organ thievery,” the modern blood libel? The Nazi-like hatred for Jews indoctrinated in Palestinian youth from the moment they’re born is undeniable, and peace in the Middle East will not be achieved until that changes. The results were clear for all to see on the streets of Berkeley and San Francisco. And yet it was those in the anti-terror crowd who were labeled “hatemongers.”

One of the most spurious accusations leveled against rally supporters was that somehow they had "incited" violence by their mere presence. Violence was indeed the goal of a mob of keffiyeh-clad youth who disrupted the peaceful rally in “free speech” bastion Berkeley. And in San Francisco, the same group was thwarted. No doubt the disapproving Jewish community felt a certain “I told you so” at the news. But does it follow that it was the rally-goers’ fault that they were attacked? Unscrupulous lawyers accusing rape victims of “asking for it” have used the same argument. It’s called blaming the victim.

If holding a rally against global terrorism and commemorating the victims of suicide bombings is inciting others to violence, then so be it. Jews should not have to feel guilty for condemning terrorism or cower in fear of those who oppose their very existence. The day they do is the day they surrender that existence.

Unfortunately, not everyone feels that way. In a strange psychological case of identification, some Jews throw in their lot with the opposition. They have bought into their own demonization and are in effect Jewish anti-Semites. It appears they would rather assist in their own annihilation than come to grips with the hatred directed toward them. This propensity for self-loathing is well known. Why else would openly anti-Semitic, self-styled “pro-Palestinian” organizations make recruiting Jewish members their main focus? Just ask the members of “Jews for a Free Palestine” who stood shoulder to shoulder with the Jew-haters in Berkeley.

In the wake of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it’s instructive to look back and see how this disunity has harmed Jews in the past. During the Holocaust, Jews were used by the Nazis to calm their co-religionists and help make them more docile for the trip to the gas chambers. There were Jewish prisoners (among others) who worked as guards in the concentration camps, often treating their fellow Jews as brutally as the SS. They were called “kapos,” a term gaining currency once again as old wounds are reopened.

When you hear leaders in the French Jewish community telling others to “remain calm” amidst a backdrop of anti-Semitic attacks and vandalism, echoes of the past can be heard. Similarly, when fellow Jews told those who supported the anti-terrorism rallies that they should “be quiet,” “not make waves,” and, most outrageously, that they “incited” hatred, it seemed as if history was repeating itself all over again.

Yet even in their darkest moments, Jews managed to fight back. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943, when Jews of all political stripes — facing certain death at the concentration camp in Treblinka — banded together to form the Jewish Resistance Organization, was a shining example. They dealt a severe blow to the Nazis, forcing propaganda chief Josef Goebbels to concede in his diary: "The Jews have actually succeeded in making a defensive position of the Ghetto. Heavy engagements are being fought…this just shows what you can expect from Jews if they lay hands on weapons."

A year later, in 1944, Jews living in what the British called Palestine formed the Jewish Brigade, an all-Jewish fighting force. They fought with the allies against the German army in Italy, and after the war ended, did everything they could to smuggle Holocaust survivors out of Europe and into Palestine. Later in 1948, these veterans fought bravely in Israel’s War of Independence. Member Jonathan Peltz summed up the Brigade’s main achievement: “We proved to the world that we can fight. We proved to ourselves that we can fight."

The story of the Jews themselves is one of triumph over adversity and the quest to reclaim or hold onto the Jewish homeland. Israel’s (or Judea’s) ancient history is that of a nation constantly besieged by enemies. But no matter the hardships, the Jews never gave up. The founding of the nation of Israel in 1948 speaks to this tenacity, as does the Six-Day War of 1967, which was a further triumph of which Jews should be proud.

This is why Israel is so resented in the world — because it represents Jewish strength. The current disengagement plan and the resurgence of Oslo-like naivete are not examples of such strength, but rather the capitulation without cause that seems to plague the country in moments of doubt. The path Israel takes will help determine the fate of Jews in the years to come.

One thing is certain: It’s time for Jews to stop apologizing for being Zionists. At a time of rising worldwide anti-Semitism and an increase in Jews making aliyah, it should be painfully obvious why the State of Israel is so important.

My mother once told me about an encounter she had in “liberal” Marin County (where I grew up) with a Jewish family she knew. During one conversation, she let drop casually that she was a Zionist. “You’re a Zionist?” the man asked in horror. “Of course” she answered. “How can you be a Jew and not be a Zionist?”

A better question I couldn’t have asked myself.

Cinnamon Stillwell is contributing editor to ChronWatch.com and also writes for SFGate.com, Frontpagemagazine.com, and Israel National News. She lives in San Francisco and can be reached at cinnamons@earthlink.net.

Danish Prime Minister is one of the good guys!

How often do you hear European heads of state make this much sense about Israel?

Israel finds a defender in Denmark
Since Denmark has only a tiny Jewish community, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen can't be accused of pandering to the Jewish vote when he launched a spirited defense of Israel on the campaign stump earlier this week.

During an appearance at the University of Aarhus, Rasmussen was challenged over his support for the US and asked why Iraq was attacked for violating UN Security Council resolutions while Israel was able to do so with impunity.

Rasmussen, whose country began a two-year rotating stint on the Security Council on January 1, said that whereas Israel was not completely implementing all the Security Council resolutions, 'it is not run by a dictator without a conscience, and that is an essential difference.'

'Moreover,' he said, 'Israel is surrounded by enemies that want to throw it into the sea, and we should recognize that it has a special history. Israel must use somewhat tough measures to defend itself.'

Asymmetry

All the gestures that Palestinians do for "peace" can be taken away in a blink of an eye. They deploy troops and make a couple of arrests today; tomorrow they start shooting at schoolbuses.

All the gestures Israel is doing for peace are either permanent or very, very expensive to undo. Releasing prisoners, ceding land and control, agreeing to not defend herself - all of these things can (and, historically, have) resulted in less security and more death.

We are witnessing Oslo II, and I fail to see how the Israeli government has shown that it learned the lessons of Oslo I.

Iran laughs at world again

Everything can be solved by negotiation, right?

Iran Says It Will Never Scrap Nuke Program
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran will never scrap its nuclear program, and talks with Europeans are intended to protect the country's nuclear achievements, not negotiate an end to them, an Iranian official said Wednesday.

Israelis use their heads to get tourists

Take the thing that scare people about visiting Israel and make it the reason to visit!

Israel's international reputation as a target for suicide bombings and terrorist infiltrations has scared off tourists for years. But now, that might be what brings them back.

The Israel Challenge Experience's (ICE) army fantasy camp, to open in May, lets tourists spend a week getting "anti-terror training" from the IDF experts.

"Unfortunately Israel has become the world leader in fighting terrorism. Who better to train with than the people who have written the book on antiterror warfare?" asks ICE president Ben Goldstein, a Memphis native who made aliya and served in the Givati Brigade.

So while Israelis jet off to Istanbul and Goa to get away from it all, foreigners can plunk down $3,600, plus air fare, and take a relaxing break in the thick of terrorist warfare.

In seven days, participants are trained in shooting, hand-to-hand fighting, surveillance, hostage rescue and more, culminating in a staged battle on the final day.

While other fantasy camp vacations let you break the sound barrier on Russian MiGs or herd cattle a la Billy Crystal in City Slickers, this mock adventure offers much more practical experience for the post-9/11 world.

Goldstein estimates that the daily training in hand-to-hand combat, for instance, could help you ward off a mugger if confronted by one. And, he says, "If you find yourself on a hijacked bus and you just happen to have a mini-Uzi on you, then, yeah, you definitely have an advantage over somebody who didn't come on this program."

He adds, "That's why we call it fantasy. Because most likely you'll never never have to storm a house full of terrorists or rescue hostages on a bus."

That's apparently a disappointing thought to the 275 people, from Australia to Switzerland, who have e-mailed Goldstein with inquiries about the program. On the first day of registration alone, six people signed up to spend their May holiday in the training camp, located near Netanya.

"Most of your friends were sitting in a cubicle all week, and here you were leading a unit into an attack on a terrorist camp," said Goldstein, explaining the program's appeal. "I run across very few people who wouldn't like to spend some time being James Bond."

European yardsticks for Turkey, a peaceful country, joining the EU – demand [of Turkey] far-reaching political and social reform “on the ground”, and 10 to 15 years of negotiations while Turks prove democratic change is “irreversible.”

European yardsticks for Palestinians, a hostile society, joining the Family of Nations - amounts to praise for fabricated non-existent reforms and calls to drop the required incremental progress from the Road Map. End to violence and democratic reform, that Palestinians haven’t even begun is tolerable – all in order to forge the way for immediate establishment of a Palestinian state, one which will endanger the very survival of a free and democratic Israel.

The historic decision of the European Commission in mid-December 2004 that Turkey is now ready to begin full negotiations on joining the European Union is an excellent opportunity to benchmark the way Europeans judge Turks, and how they judge Palestinians.

Keep in mind the goals and the ramifications of each: The Turks’ goal is membership in the European Union – a political union that the Europeans already say will have an iron-clad reversibility clause for Turkey if it fails to live up to its promises. The Palestinians’ goal[1] is sovereignty as a State – status for which there is no reversibility mechanism if Palestine turns into a rogue state. Logically, the yardsticks of judging readiness should be at least equal, if not more stringent for Palestinians, a society that consciously and purposely sacrifices its own youth for political gain and tactical advantage, with a leadership that champions suicide bombers.

Alas, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Read the whole thing. -EoZ

Oops. Never mind.

A society that celebrates by firing guns in the air does not have the right to tell others about the value of life. -EoZ.

The Palestinians arrested a suspect in Monday's murder of Nuran Dib, on Tuesday evening.

The man reportedly fired shots into the air; one of those shots hit the girl.

The suspect is being questioned regarding the shooting.

The IDF said on Monday night that following an initial investigation, it did not seem that the 10-year-old from Rafah was hit by IDF tank fire.

Palestinians had originally claimed that the girl was killed by shrapnel fired from an IDF tank shell at an UNWRA schoolyard in Rafah, where Dib was playing.

The Palestinians used the supposed killing as a pretext to resume firing mortars at Gaza Strip settlements.

During the day Monday, soldiers positioned in posts located along the Philadelphi Route fired twice from light weapons into areas far from where the girl was hit, security officials said.

The officials said that at the time the girl was killed, officials at the District Coordinating Office received reports that in the same area Muslim worshippers returning from the Hajj in Mecca fired warning shots in the air to celebrate their return.

The Arafat Theme Park

Like a perpetual memory machine, the tomb of Yasser Arafat grows more elaborate with each passing day.

Just 11 weeks ago, as Arafat lay dying in a hospital bed outside Paris, this bare-dirt corner of the iconic Palestinian leader's debris-strewn Mukata headquarters was one of the most blighted sights in the entire West Bank.

Today, a national shrine is rising from the rubble, replete with landscaped gardens, newly transplanted mature olive trees and Palestinian flags framing a steel-and-glass burial chamber whose doors open toward the holy city of Mecca.

With all eyes in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict focused on the prospects of a long-overdue ceasefire, the high-speed deification of Arafat's wreath-strewn gravesite has passed almost unnoticed. But it is nonetheless fascinating to watch the almost daily adornments accrue.

However much Palestinians promise that, in the fullness of time, Arafat will make one last journey to be reburied in his beloved Jerusalem, the embellishments underway at this supposedly temporary gravesite come with a sense of permanence.

... Habash is now executive director of the National Committee for Immortalizing the Symbol of the Immortal Leader Yasser Arafat.

The astonishingly fanciful title means he oversees a 50-person committee charged with reinventing the Mukata compound as a kind of Arafat theme park.

What exists today, he says, is just the beginning. Plans are being hatched for a mosque, a library and a national archive on the grounds of this former British police headquarters.

The partially destroyed apartment complex nearby, where Arafat spent his final three years, has been under 24-hour guard since the former leader's death.

Habash's committee is viewing it as a future museum.

Habash, who has been at Arafat's side since their days of exile in Beirut in the 1980s, admits to being something of a packrat.

From reel-to-reel tapes of early Palestinian Liberation Organization meetings to the tiniest scraps of paper initialled by Arafat, he calculates some 5 million pieces of Araphernalia have been preserved for future historians.

"Even those (Palestinians) who didn't like Arafat feel that they have lost something very important," says Habash.

"What we want to do is turn the Mukata into the permanent symbol of the Palestinian people — a symbol that will be as great as the symbol of George Washington."

National symbols are no less important to neighbouring Israel.

Yet none of the tombs of that nation's founding fathers — from Theodore Hertz to David Ben Gurion to Yitzhak Rabin — can be described as anything but modest, compared with the shrine evolving around Arafat.

"That is one big different between our cultures," notes professor Yehuda Gradus, director of the Ben Gurion Institute and overseer of the former prime minister's gravesite in Israel's southern Negev desert.

"Arafat to them was almost like a ghost. He was built into this enormous figure, which is a very common phenomenon throughout the Third World.

"It doesn't surprise me at all that there will be such a spectacular site."

Gradus says the Israeli inclination is to construct national memories focusing less on its leaders and more on the ideas they represented.

Consequently, while Ben Gurion lies in a rather ordinary grave, Israel has invested heavily in the nearby Ben Gurion Institute for Desert Research, where some 85 scientists live and work to this day, advancing the former leader's trailblazing ideas about reclaiming the desert as a habitat for humanity.

"Ben Gurion was a very modest man," says Gradus. "And so he has a modest grave.

"But he also was a visionary. He believed that by leading the world in this field, Israel would be a light unto other nations, achieving scientific advancements and exporting this knowledge of desert development for the benefit of all."

Such separation of man and motive appears unlikely to ever apply to Arafat.

Jihad Watch: Muslims at hate website spread personal info, photos of Christians who debate Muslims

More data that may be relevant to the New Jersey Coptic Christian family that was murdered. There is a Muslim hate website that posts the names of Christians who post on the PalTalk message boards.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross says in his article 'Christians on PalTalk Chat Service Tracked by Radical Islamic Web Site':

A radical Islamic Web site systematically tracks Christians on PalTalk.com, an Internet chat service on which a New Jersey man received a death threat two months before he and his family were murdered. The password protected Arabic Web site, at the address www.barsomyat.com, features pictures and information about Christians who have been particularly active in debating Muslims on PalTalk.

Here are some translations of these conversations. It is clear that the personal information is being exchanged in order to facilitate the murders of the people discussed ("After he is finished, the isolation of the Christian lady will be completed.") I have removed their names for obvious reasons.

Bibo 117: Allah bless you brothers!

Here is the surprise you’ve all been waiting for and we haven’t published yet due to a certain reason. The damned Muhammad-cursing dog "[NAME REMOVED]" is the big brother of "[NAME REMOVED]" and their little brother is the one called "[NAME REMOVED]."

"[NAME REMOVED]" the dog is married to the daughter of one of the Muhammad-cursing Christians from paltalk. We have postponed publishing this information because there is a lot more to be revealed when the time is right. These are the pictures of the "devil triangle."

[Photos of the people mentioned were then posted.]

Bibo 117: For you my brothers I now present the second photo collection of the Muhammad-cursing paltalk pigs. Wait a little for the rest of the pictures. The first photo is that of the foul smelling ugly pig "[NAME REMOVED]."

Anti Christians: [Posts Photos:] "The deceitful [NAME REMOVED]" and "The liar [NAME REMOVED]." [In green in the middle:] "Beware!"

Bibo 117: Fellow brothers this is the picture of one of the most Muhammad-cursing Christians. It was taken as he was opening a camera with one of the young Christian ladies from Paltalk.

*After he is finished, the isolation of the Christian lady will be completed.

This idiot’s name on paltalk: [NAME REMOVED]
His real name is: [NAME REMOVED]
He lives in [NAME REMOVED].

Titles of Threads at barsomyat.com:
A Pig Christian Soldier
Pigs of America
Blood Victims of Jesus
Destruction Perpetrated by the Love of Jesus
All this for innocent civilians?
You are digging your graves in your own hands
Because of America, Cancer Spreads in Egypt

Jews can make Arabs riot with only a few words

What power Jews have over Arabs - just a couple of words and they start rioting. It's almost like they have no free will and are completely controlled by us!

Karachi: Peres interview broadcast sparks violence
By JPOST.COM STAFF

In the Pakistani town of Karachi, dozens if Muslim extremists attacked the offices of the country's largest media corporation after it broadcast an interview with Vice Premier Shimon Peres.

After barging into the building housing the corporation's television and newspaper offices, the attackers assaulted employees, destroyed equipment and vehicles, and set fires in the studios, Army Radio reported.

In the interview which the extremists were protesting, Peres had requested the Islamic country's leaders to improve relations with Israel and to participate in diplomatic procedures.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said that the country would consider formal recognition of Israel with the renewal of the peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Why the change in the UN?

The blogosphere is commenting on the apparent change going on in the UN. I gave one cynical reason for it, and Israpundit gave another and I quoted Anne Bayefsky on her take.

Soccerdad adds some more interesting wrinkles and quotes, including this fascinating quote from Kofi Annan found by Meryl Yourish:

New York, 14 January 2005 - Statement Attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on the Middle East

The Secretary-General condemns the Palestinian terror attack that caused the death of six Israeli civilians and injury to four others at the Karni crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip yesterday evening. He wishes to express his deepest condolences to the families of those killed and injured.

The Secretary-General hopes that this terrible incident will not be allowed to undermine the recent positive steps made by both parties. He also calls on the new Palestinian leadership to make all possible attempts to bring to justice the organizers and perpetrators of this attack.

The Secretary-General emphasizes again that violence cannot provide a solution to the conflict, and that only through negotiation can peace be achieved.

Notice that he called violence against Israel "terrorism"; he didn't condemn Israel for anything nor call for "restraint."

Yourish also points out that the EU has also given an uncharacteristic comment blaming terrorists for terror.

Evelyn Gordon in the Jerusalem Post gives the credit to a consistent Bush policy at the UN:

For years the US has vetoed resolutions it deemed too biased against Israel. But during the late 1980s and 1990s Washington was unable to sway any other council member to its side: With monotonous regularity such resolutions failed by a vote of 14-1.

Over the last four years, however, there has been a shift. While no country has yet joined the US in voting "no," there have consistently been two to four abstentions - usually from Europe, occasionally from Africa as well.

Since Security Council resolutions need nine votes to pass, this means that the council has been inching toward a situation in which anti-Israel resolutions could be defeated even without an American veto.

Bush achieved this shift by setting a clear, consistent standard for what constitutes bias: Condemnations of Israel are biased unless the resolution also condemns anti-Israel terror.

And, more importantly, vague condemnations of "all violence against civilians" do not qualify. The resolution must explicitly condemn Palestinian perpetrators such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

That is such a simple and reasonable demand that some countries have found it impossible to ignore. Yet the Palestinians, and hence the Arab countries that sponsor Security Council resolutions on their behalf, have never once been willing to agree.

The result is that a handful of nations that once voted consistently against Israel - England, Germany, Norway, Romania, Bulgaria and Cameroon - turned into frequent abstainers.

This is definitely worth watching. I'm distrustful of Annan but the theory that the current US administration policies are influencing the EU is worth thinking about. I still tend to think that the EU and UN sponsorship of the roadmap has a lot to do with it, because they have to appear to be honest brokers in order to participate in the process that they so desperately want to be involved in, at the risk of sinking into irrelevance.

U.N. Transfers Thousands to Hamas Affiliates

The UN may have done more to help international terrorism than any single country.

UNITED NATIONS - A United Nations agency transferred thousands of dollars to a Palestinian Arab charity affiliated with terrorism long after Israel warned of the terror connection, though the U.N. publicly claimed payments to the organization had stopped.

The blunder points to trouble inside the U.N. Development Program, a huge operation headed by Mark Maloch Brown, who has recently been appointed Secretary-General Annan's chief of staff, largely for his organizational skills and his ability to handle the press. The U.N. plans to launch an internal probe as a result of the revelations uncovered by The New York Sun.

According to a UNDP letter that was seen by the Sun, the agency transferred the sum of $6,000 to an account in the Jenin branch of Cairo Amman Bank in September 11, 2003. The account belongs to the Jenin Zaka, or charity committee.

A subsequent letter from UNDP, dated October 3, 2003, written in Arabic and addressed to the head of the Jenin organization, actually states that the transfer was a mistake and demands a return of the funds. 'It was transferred to your account by mistake,' the letter states, adding that the money 'was intended for the Tul Karem Charity Committee.'

Both committees were identified by the Israeli Defense Force as part of a charity network affiliated with Hamas, the terror organization that has boycotted the recent election in the Palestinian Arab areas. The head of the Jenin committee, Ahmed Salaatnah, spent time in Israeli jails between 1993 and 1995 for terrorist activities in the Izz a Din al Kassem, the operational military branch of Hamas responsible for a chain of suicide bombings.

The money transfers in the fall of 2003 are interesting because it was made clear to the head of the UNDP office in Jerusalem, Timothy Rothermel, by the IDF four months earlier that the charity organizations were fronts for Hamas.

Tale of two refugee groups

About 600,000 Pal refugees from Israel in 1948.

About 600,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries 1948-1952. The Arabs confiscate all their property, valued in the millions of dollars.

Pals go into refugee camps after their Arab brethren refuse to take them in.

Jews go to Israel where they are welcomed with open arms.

The Arab world is virtually without Jews.

Israel gives citizenship to a million Palestinians.

Pals grow up in sewage under UN auspices.

Jews, although discriminated against at first, become productive members of society.

Pals blame Israel for their problems.

Jews become cab drivers, store owners, farmers and politicians.

Pals remain in camps for over fifty years, in Lebanon, Syria and in the West Bank and Gaza, where they learn terror and hate. Their Arab brethren work hard to keep them in subhuman conditions. Any attempts to move them out of camps and into normal houses and apartments are vehemently opposed by other Arabs. Saudi oil billions go towards Palestinian terror rather than making Palestinian lives easier.

The Jews live in a democracy. Although they started out penniless, they now contribute mightily to Israel's economy.

Who is responsible for the welfare of the Jewish refugees?

Who is responsible for the welfare of the of the Arab refugees?

Rabbis and imams unite against religious extremism

I had read about this when it happened in early January, but it received virtually no press coverage in the US. So I decided to post it here.

By the way, these are not left-wing nor reform rabbis for the most part, but rabbis who are quite Orthodox. -EoZ

Rabbis and imams unite against religious extremism
By Daniel Ben-Simon

BRUSSELS - A few minutes before Europe observed three minutes of silence last Wednesday in memory of the tsunami victims, Jewish and Muslim clergy who had convened at Egmont Palace decided to join them. Two days earlier, the clergy had come together to seek means of greater involvement for religion in quietening the bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
At exactly noon, all the participants got to their feet around the tables in the magnificent conference hall. Rabbis and imams, along with several Christian clerics, stood side by side and bowed their heads in utter silence.

Suddenly, Rabbi Shlomo Chelouche, the chief rabbi of Haifa, recited a short prayer for the victims. When he finished, all those present said "amen."

Then Zimer Omar Farouk Turan, the former mufti of Istanbul, recited verses from the Koran. No sooner did he finish than Rabbi Yosef Azran, chief rabbi of Rishon Letzion, chanted a psalm, his voice choked with tears. When the moments of silence were over, the hundreds of clergy in the room remained standing. Some wiped away a tear.

"This proves that rabbis and imams can work together for a common goal," said Rabbi Rene Sirat, the former chief rabbi of France. "In all my years as a rabbi, I never experienced a moment like this," Sirat added, invoking the traditional Jewish blessing for reaching a special milestone.

Hojat al-Islam Muhammad Mehatali, a senior Iranian cleric, looked at his colleagues in amazement. "These moments were the cream of the whole conference," he said. "Where have you ever seen Muslims and Jews praying as if they were one family?"

There was no shortage of moving moments during the unprecedented "Rabbis and Imams for Peace" conference, which was sponsored by the organization Hommes de Parole. The confrence hosted more than 200 rabbis and imams as well as Christian clergy from all over the world to convey the message that religion does not send people out to kill and that anyone who takes a life in the name of religion transgresses a commandment of God.

The conference concluded on Friday with a pledge that the Jewish and Muslim clerics would work to put an end to bloodshed between Israelis and Palestinians and would struggle with all their might against hatred, ignorance and extremism on both sides. When the declaration was read, the participants got to their feet and applauded.

The delegates grew close during the conference. Rabbis who had never met an imam spoke freely with them during the meetings. At first, they ate at separate tables - Jews here, Muslims there, eyeing each other suspiciously. A day later they had moved closer; a day after that, they were sitting together and even taking pictures arm in arm.

By Wednesday, they were praising each other's faith. "We are all the children of one father - Abraham the Patriarch," said Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi Doron.

Sheikh Talal Sidr of Hebron moved the audience when he called on them to visit every mosque and synagogue to preach peace and dignity. "This is the divine commandment; we must educate a generation to peace and love," he said.

"How is it that every Jewish prayer ends with the word peace and every Muslim prayer ends with the word peace and we are killing each other?" asked Sheikh Abdul Jalil Sajid, the imam of Brighton, England.

Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, chief rabbi of Ramat Gan and a leading opponent of disengagement, surprised the audience with his conciliatory tone. "Judaism and Islam have a common task," he said, "to bring a message to the whole world. Don't we all have one father? So why should we hurt each other?"

The imams represented most of the countries of Africa and Asia, dressed in traditional robes and head coverings in a rainbow of colors. The former president of Indonesia, Abdul Rahman Wahid, canceled his participation because of the tsunami damage to his country.

"The extremists have taken God hostage," said Andre Azoulay, adviser to the king of Morocco. "Unfortunately they are stronger than the Jewish and Muslim people of peace." Participants made great efforts to distance themselves from the horrors perpetrated by fanatics in the name of God.

Paramount during the conference was the clergy's desire to participate in the political process. Several noted that without religious legitimization, no political agreement will last and realizing that if they do not rein in the extremists, the latter might touch off a powder keg of religious hatred that will ignite the whole region.

At the end of the conference, participants held hands and sang Haveinu Shalom Aleichem, a Hebrew song of peace. "We made history," said Alain Michel, a French Christian and president of Hommes de Parole.