Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, June 06, 2005

I was getting nervous there for a while

But I indeed have made it into the latest of the Best of the JBlogosphere Roundup known (this week) as Haveil Havalim #23. And again, two of my posts were mentioned! I'm kvelling! As usual, a stellar job was done by the HH moderator.

And while I do understand that self-nominating is fine, now my ever-growing ego is in play, so I need to see how many weeks I can get into this august publication purely from others nominating me. I think this is five or six in a row - all during Sefirat HaOmer, which may or may not be significant.

Anyway, I'd like to thank all the little people who have helped me attain this esteemed honor, and perhaps if I butter up next week's beautiful and talented hostessMirty I can expect to make it into the next edition as well!

Anti-Semitism at 'Le Monde' and Beyond

A landmark ruling by a French court finds its leading paper guilty of slandering Israel and Jewish people.

By Tom Gross
The Wall Street Journal Europe
June 2, 2005

A French court last week found three writers for Le Monde, as well as the newspaper's publisher, guilty of "racist defamation" against Israel and the Jewish people. In a groundbreaking decision, the Versailles court of appeal ruled that a comment piece published in Le Monde in 2002, "Israel-Palestine: The Cancer," had whipped up anti-Semitic opinion.

The writers of the article, Edgar Morin (a well-known sociologist), Daniele Sallenave (a senior lecturer at Nanterre University) and Sami Nair (a member of the European parliament), as well as Le Monde's publisher, Jean-Marie Colombani, were ordered to pay symbolic damages of one euro to a human-rights group and to the Franco-Israeli association. Le Monde was also ordered to publish a condemnation of the article, which it has yet to do.

It is encouraging to see a French court rule that anti-Semitism should have no place in the media -- even when it is masked as an analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The ruling also makes it clear that the law in this respect applies to extremist Jews (Mr. Morin is Jewish) as much as to non-Jews.

Press freedom is a value to be cherished, but not exploited and abused. In general, European countries have strict laws against such abuse and Europe's mainstream media are in any case usually good at exercising self-censorship. Responsible journalists strenuously avoid libelous characterizations of entire ethnic, national or religious groups. They go out of their way, for example, to avoid suggesting that the massacres in Darfur, which are being carried out by Arab militias, in any way represent an Arab trait.

The exception to this seems to be the coverage of Jews, particularly Israeli ones. This is particularly ironic given the fact that Europe's relatively strict freedom of speech laws (compared to those in the U.S.) were to a large extend drafted as a reaction to the Continent's Nazi occupation. And yet, from Oslo to Athens, from London to Madrid, it has been virtually open season on them in the last few years, especially in supposedly liberal media.

"Israel-Palestine: The Cancer" was a nasty piece of work, replete with lies, slanders and myths about "the chosen people," "the Jenin massacre," describing the Jews as "a contemptuous people taking satisfaction in humiliating others," "imposing their unmerciful rule," and so on.

Yet it is was no worse than thousands of other news reports, editorials, commentaries, letters, cartoons and headlines published throughout Europe in recent years, in the guise of legitimate and reasoned discussion of Israeli policies.

The libels and distortions about Israel in some British media are by now fairly well known: the Guardian's equation of Israel and al Qaeda; the Evening Standard's equation of Israel and the Taliban; the report by the BBC's Middle East correspondent, Orla Guerin, on how "the Israelis stole Christmas." Most notorious of all is the Independent's Middle East correspondent, Robert Fisk, who specializes in such observations as his comment that, "If ever a sword was thrust into a military alliance of East and West, the Israelis wielded that dagger," and who implies that the White House has fallen into the hands of the Jews: "The Perles and the Wolfowitzes and the Cohens ... [the] very sinister people hovering around Bush."

The invective against Israel elsewhere in Europe is less well known. In Spain, for example, on June 4, 2001 (three days after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 21 young Israelis at a disco, and wounded over 100 others, all in the midst of a unilateral Israeli ceasefire), the liberal daily Cambio 16 published a cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (with a hook nose he does not have), wearing a skull cap (which he does not usually wear), sporting a swastika inside a star of David on his chest, and proclaiming: "At least Hitler taught me how to invade a country and destroy every living insect."

The week before, on May 23, El Pais (the "New York Times of Spain") published a cartoon of an allegorical figure carrying a small rectangular-shaped black moustache, flying through the air toward Sharon's upper lip. The caption read: "Clio, the muse of history, puts Hitler's moustache on Ariel Sharon."

Two days later, on May 25, the Catalan daily La Vanguardia published a cartoon showing an imposing building, with a sign outside reading "Museo del Holocausto Judio" (Museum of the Jewish Holocaust), and next to it another building under construction, with a large sign reading "Futuro Museo del Holocausto Palestino" (Future Museum of the Palestinian Holocaust).

Greece's largest newspaper, the leftist daily Eleftherotypia, has run several such cartoons. In April 2002, on its front cover, under the title "Holocaust II," an Israeli soldier was depicted as a Nazi officer and a Palestinian civilian as a Jewish death camp inmate. In September 2002, another cartoon in Eleftherotypia showed an Israeli soldier with a Jewish star telling a Nazi officer next to him "Arafat is not a person the Reich can talk to anymore." The Nazi officer responds "Why? Is he a Jew?"

In Italy, in October 2001, the Web site of one of the country's most respected newspapers, La Repubblica, published the notorious anti-Semitic forgery, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," in its entirety, without providing any historical explanation. It did suggest, however, that the work would help readers understand why the U.S. had taken military action in Afghanistan.

In April 2002, the Italian liberal daily La Stampa ran a front-page cartoon showing an Israeli tank, emblazoned with a Jewish star, pointing a large gun at the baby Jesus in a manger, while the baby pleads, "Surely they don't want to kill me again, do they?"

In Corriere Della Sera, another cartoon showed Jesus trapped in his tomb, unable to rise, because Ariel Sharon, rifle in hand, is sitting on the sepulcher.

Sweden's largest morning paper, Dagens Nyheter, ran a caricature of a Hassidic Jew accusing anyone who criticized Israel of anti-Semitism. Another leading Swedish paper, Aftonbladet, used the headline "The Crucifixion of Arafat."

If the misreporting and bias were limited to one or two newspapers or television programs in each country, it might be possible to shrug them off. But they are not. Bashing Israel even extends to local papers that don't usually cover foreign affairs, such as the double-page spread titled "Jews in jackboots" in "Luton on Sunday." (Luton is an industrial town in southern England.) Or the article in Norway's leading regional paper, Stavanger Aftenblad, equating Israel's actions against terrorists in Ramallah with the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Grotesque and utterly false comparisons such as these should have no place in reporting or commenting on the Middle East. Yet although the French court ruling -- the first of its kind in Europe -- is a major landmark, no one in France seems to care. The country's most distinguished newspaper, the paper of record, has been found guilty of anti-Semitism. One would have thought that such a verdict would prompt wide-ranging coverage and lead to extensive soul-searching and public debate. Instead, there has been almost complete silence, and virtually no coverage in the French press.

And few elsewhere will have heard about it. Reuters and Agence France Presse (agencies that have demonstrated particularly marked bias against Israel) ran short stories about the judgment in their French-language wires last week, but chose not to run them on their English news services. The Associated Press didn't run it at all. Instead of triggering the long overdue reassessment of Europe's attitude toward Israel, the media have chosen to ignore it.

(Mr. Gross is a former Jerusalem correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph and the New York Daily News.)

Druze Soldier day

Something to show people when they claim that Israel is racist.

Thousands of youth from Druze communities marched in the Galilee Monday afternoon to mark Druze Soldier Day. According to Israel Radio, Druze soldiers who have been honored during their IDF service, bereaved Druze families who have lost soldiers in any fighting, those disabled in their army service, and reserve officers, are all taking part in the march.

There will be a central ceremony Monday night. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz will participate, as will leaders of the Druze community.

Letter to the President

When I read that the US is considering shifting its position on Hamas, I was shocked. Although democracy has been a key stated goal of your policies, democracy without freedom is worthless. The Hamas and Islamic Jihad gangs are not interested in freedom one bit: their entire goal is the exact opposite, the creation of a theocratic thugocracy.

Elections will not change this - they will make it worse, by giving these groups a veneer of democratic "legitimacy." Rabid anti-semitism and anti-US hate would continue to be the order of the day. Murderous thugs will not suddenly become peace-loving, no matter what the US does.

Although I have supported you strongly in the "war on terror" (really the war against Islamic terror,) these reports that the US is considering giving Hamas more legitimacy are not only troubling, they go completely against what you are trying to accomplish in other areas of the world. Nobody expected Iraq and Afghanistan to be successful free states immediately, but they are on their way - because they now have basic freedoms. Sharansky, whom you have said you admire, argues these points more forcefully than I can.

Until there are basic freedoms available in the Palestinian territories, elections are a joke. Corrupt politicians who still support terror do not help the Palestinian people in the least. Knowing these facts, it is hard to understand why the US would even consider warming up relations with Hamas.

Supporting freedom before the next round of elections may make the process take a bit longer, but at least there would be the possibility of success.

Rockets starting to appear in West Bank

Does anyone doubt that the apprent success of Qassams in Gaza, which appear to the terrorists to be responsible for Israels retreat from there, will fuel similar rocket attacks in the Judea and Samaria?

Islamic Jihad fired about five rockets at the settlements of Ganim and Kadim from Jenin in recent weeks, as part of continuing Palestinian efforts to bring to the West Bank the rocket fire that has threatened Israeli towns and settlements in and around the Gaza Strip.

The rockets exploded in the air shortly after being launched.

More displays of respect for religion by Palestinian Arabs

Yom Yerushalayim - Jerusalem Day

I do not live in Israel, so I do not feel qualified to post appropriately as to the significance of Yom Yerushalayim. But please check out these blog entries to get an idea of the amazing love that Jews have and have always had for this beautiful city:

Treppenwitz
Chayyei Sarah
Nafka Mina

Another suicide bombing foiled

Now, lets do a search for articles mentioning any arrests of Islamic Jihad members by the PA.

Hmmmm.

A terror attack planned for the center of the country over the weekend was prevented. A gag order has now been lifted reporting soldiers of the Nachshon unit apprehended two Islamic Jihad terrorists northeast of Tulkarem.

The two planned a suicide bombing attack in the center of the country, with security forces linking the terrorists to the cell responsible for the Stage Club attack in Tel Aviv in the past.

President George W. Bush has placed democratization at the center of his Middle East policy. At his inauguration he declared, “Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know: America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free country.” Bush is sincere, confronting not only adversaries like Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but also pro-American dictators like Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Bush can claim success: 2005 is the year of the election. Iraqis defied predictions to cast their ballots. Palestinians also embraced the vote, electing Mahmoud Abbas to replace the late Yasser Arafat.

Elections alone do not make democracy, though. Washington should be cynical about Mubarak’s commitment to democracy. Even though 83 percent of his electorate voted for multiparty elections in a May 25, 2005 referendum, his government still determines who can run. In October 2004, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali won 94.5 percent of the vote after curtailing his opponents’ campaign. The Saudi kingdom has trumpeted its municipal elections, but the resulting councils have had neither budgetary nor legislative authority.

While the White House has treated these autocrats’ commitments with skepticism, the Bush administration refuses to extend the same cynicism to Islamist groups, many of which embrace elections but cast aside democratic values. In 1992, for example, Ali Balhadj, a leader of the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria declared, “When we are in power, there will be no more elections because God will be ruling.” In March 2004, influential Karbala cleric Sayyid Hadi al-Modarresi told al-Hayat, “The first article in a democracy is the rule of the majority over the minority.”

In recent months, the Bush administration has sent mixed signals to Islamist groups in Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, and Egypt. Bush has held out an olive branch to Hizballah, a group funded and armed by Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Syrian intelligence. While the party does hold seats in the Lebanese parliament, it maintains its own private army and embraces violence. Hizballah’s March 8, 2005 rally in Beirut in favor of occupation made a mockery of its claim to be an anti-occupation resistance movement.

The White House has also flip-flopped on Hamas. While Hamas candidates came in second to those of Fatah in Palestinian elections, it nonetheless won the largest municipalities in Gaza. White House spokesman Scott McClellan called Hamas’ successful candidates “business professionals.” But election participation does not make candidates democratic. Hamas ran on a platform rejecting the compromises necessary for Palestinian statehood. Its charter embraced imposition of Islamic rule, with the Koran as its constitution, and it has eschewed rule-of-law. Well-known for its attacks on Israelis, it has also targeted liberal Palestinians.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, another recipient of recent State Department outreach, also has a long legacy of violence. Its armed wing has murdered thousands. Engaging any group that has been involved in terror only legitimizes the violence that propelled that group to prominence. Better that Washington support bold but peaceful politicians like Ayman Nour.

Washington’s infatuation with Islamists has emboldened such groups and deflated the morale of democrats. Condoleezza Rice bolstered the legitimacy of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq when she invited its leader to the White House. This invitation signaled that the Bush administration endorsed the Islamist group over more democratic movements, and suggested to the Supreme Council that an ephemeral embrace of democracy was sufficient. Today, gangs belonging to the Supreme Council enforce Islamic law on cities like Basra and Kut, breaking up student picnics and tearing down posters championing other groups. More recently, many Iraqis interpreted the April 2005 appointment of National Endowment for Democracy official Laith Kubba as Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari’s spokesman to be an American endorsement for his Islamist platform.

The Arab world is capable of democracy. When mechanisms for electoral accountability exist, Islamists lose their charm. In Jordan, for example, the Islamic Action Front lost half its seats between 1989 and 1993, after it failed to fulfill its promises. Unable to withstand the popular rebuff, the Islamists boycotted the next election.

There is no reason why the Arab world cannot be democratic. But for democracy to succeed, all parties have to embrace not only elections as the path to power, but also regular subservience to the electorate as their master. Because Islamists base their legitimacy upon a higher power, they are intrinsically anti-democratic and unwilling to accept popular rebuke. One man, one vote, one time makes dictatorship, not democracy.

By embracing Islamists in Iran, President Jimmy Carter replaced one dictatorship with another. The Bush administration’s flirtation with Arab Islamists risks doing the same. Washington should push for democracy, but only work with groups willing to abide by democratic precepts.- Published 2/6/2005 © bitterlemons-international.org

Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is editor of the Middle East Quarterly.

Israel frees 398 jailed Palestinians.

How many times has Israel done this "gesture"? How many Israelis died as a direct result?

Israel freed 398 Palestinians in a gesture to moderate President Mahmoud Abbas, giving rise to emotional reunions with relatives and comrades near Israeli checkpoints in the occupied West Bank and Gaza where handovers took place.

Ten armed members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Abbas's Fatah movement, mobbed Aqra as he got off a bus at Gaza's Erez crossing with Israel after serving 2 1/2 years of a 4-year sentence for militant activity.

'Freedom is precious but our happiness will never be complete until all (8,000) of our brothers suffering in jails of the (Israeli) occupation are freed,' al-Aqra, 38, said.

'If Israel really wants peace, they must free all of us, especially those in prison for more than 20 or 30 years,' he added, echoing a collective grievance of Palestinians over jailed compatriots they see as heroes fighting occupation.

Yeah, if Israel wants peace, all it has to do is free every terrorist who wants to destroy it. And go back to the Green Line. And allow 8 million Palestinians to move to Israel. And give them all of Jerusalem. And kick out all the Jews.

How reasonable!

Syria test-fires 3 Scud missiles

This doesn't bother me too much. It appears to me that it shows Syrian impotence in today's world, and it is designed to give the Syrians a psychological boost as if they still matter.

Syria test-fired three Scud missiles last Friday, including one that broke up over Turkish territory and showered missile parts down onto unsuspecting Turkish farmers, Israeli military officials revealed Thursday.

These were the first such Syrian missile tests since 2001, the Israelis said, and were part of a Syrian missile development project using North Korean technology and designed, the Israelis contend, to deliver air-burst chemical weapons. The missiles included one older Scud B, with a range of about 185 miles, and two Scud D's, the Israelis say they believe, with a range of about 435 miles.

British built "wall" to stop Arab terror in 1938

The world changes, the Arab terrorists don't. This is from the June 2, 1938 Palestine Post.

So the question is, what fence? A little research finds this article from May 30, 1938:

Deja vu is the rule when you look at the history of the conflict. Except when the British built walls, executed Arab terrorists and demolished their houses, they were fully justified. Only when the Jews do it does it become a crime.

Lessons for today from June 2, 1937 - 1935 - 1933

The Arabs will not allow any part of the country to be owned by someone other then themselves, neither will they allow the country to be controlled, politically or administratively, by the Jews or anyone else.

No solution which does not meet these demands will ever be accepted by the Arabs and the Moslems throughout the world.

This statement can be seen as a blueprint for Arab-Israeli relations throughout the entire century. Everything that the Arabs have said or done since then, including Camp David and Oslo, has been entirely consistent with this statement. (In my opinion, the Jordanian leadership has been the only exception, and I think the reason is that they hate the Palestinians more than they hate the Jews.) All "peaceful" moves have been with an eye towards the long-term eradication of Jewish control over any part of the area.

Interestingly, on the same date in 1935, there was a review in the Palestine Post of a book about the history of Arabs in Palestine, and it rightly pointed out that Arabs themselves only ruled the area between 637 and 1071. Although this seems comical, it points out another fact that gets lost in today's world of instant news: the Arabs have a very long historical memory, their perceived humiliations from centuries past are still considered fresh wounds (reference Bin Laden's mention of "the tragedy of Andalusia"), and they are therefore patient as to when they will finally acheive their ultimate victory over the world.

Of course, Jews happen to have a historical memory that is quite a bit longer than the Arabs', as can be seen from this page 1 article of June 2, 1933: (Syria should be thankful that Israel doesn't assure its historic rights over Damascus!)

Yet somehow the Jews didn't rely on the very strong Biblical-era reasons that they should remain in the area, but they also worked hard to ensure that they keep their rights to the Land - with a superior claim historically, militarily, politically and legally.

Jew-hatred, however, will always ignore mere facts.

Jerusalem double suicide attack thwarted

Security forces thwarted a large attack terrorists planned to carry out in Jerusalem, it was released for publication Wednesday evening.

Earlier this week, five Palestinians, members of Islamic Jihad, were arrested in the vicinity of the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem.

The five were planning on carrying out a double suicide bombing in the capital on Thursday, near the Ramot neighborhood. The plan was apparently to detonate explosives on a bus and in a cafe or synagogue. Two explosive belts have been found.

Behind the planned attack was the Islamic Jihad's headquarters in the West Bank, which is responsible for carrying out an attack at the Stage nightclub in Tel Aviv in February, in which five people were killed.

Remember what Abbas said just this week:

The era of suicide bombing in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be over and the culture of violence is changing in the region, said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an interview aired on Sunday.

Abbas, who was in Washington last week to meet U.S. President George W. Bush, said Palestinian-Israeli violence was down 90 percent in the past four months and he was optimistic for the future.

Asked in an interview with ABC's "This Week" whether the era of suicide bombing was over, he said: "I believe it is over."

"We have started to deal with the culture of violence, we stopped the culture of violence and the Palestinian people have started looking at it as something that should be condemned and it should stop."

Arab medical technology catching up to Israel's

Israeli technology is only able to do this:

Adult liver cells can be redirected to produce insulin in response to glucose levels, according to the results of an Israeli study released last week.

The scientists at Tel Aviv's Sheba Medical Center have successfully modified liver cells to produce insulin that, when transplanted into mice, brought diabetes under control. The researchers hope that one day the method will allow the use of a diabetes patient's own liver cells to treat their condition.

'This approach may overcome the shortage in tissue availability from cadaver donors and the need for lifelong immune suppression,' said the director of the study, Dr. Sarah Ferber from The Endocrine Institute, at Sheba. The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

But the latest out of Saudi Arabia shows startling breakthroughs in Arab medicine:

The following are excerpts from an interview with Dr. Ibrahim 'Abd Al-Karim Al-'Arifi, a urologist in the King Fahd Military Hospital in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, which aired on Qatar TV on May 23, 2005.

Host: Let's talk about the medical treatments for impotence and about other methods that are popular, especially among young people. [...]

Al-'Arifi:In ancient Islamic medicine, there's some kind of lizard called Sagangor.

Host: Sagangor?

Al-'Arifi: Yes. This is a lizard-like animal, a reptile that can be found in the Al-Nufudh and Al-Rub' Al-Khali areas. This animal is mentioned in many books, and a colleague of mine even studied this matter. You take the tissue surrounding its kidney, dry it, grind it up, and give it to the man. This strengthens his erection.

Host: This still needs to be researched scientifically.

Al-'Arifi: A colleague of mine wants to conduct such a study, but we've found references in several medical books by the greatest ancient Muslim doctors.