Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Europeans moderating their views of Israel?

It is interesting that all three of these stories appeared today:

THE former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, condemned plans by Anglican church leaders to disinvest from companies that do business in Israel yesterday.

Doctors Without Borders founder and former French health minister Dr. Bernard Kouchner lashes out against those who "have no memory" about the Holocaust and what the Jews have been though in the Middle East since then. Kouchner told The Jerusalem Post in an interview on Monday that those who dismiss Israel's right to exist suffer from "historical amnesia." He dismissed out of hand those who support an academic boycott of Israeli institutions of research and higher education. "Boycott science? That's nonsense. They want to hurt Israel but they hurt the Palestinians as well," said Kouchner.

Israel need not pay much attention to Europe, which is using its Middle East policy to separate itself from the US, has a tendency toward appeasement and is largely pro-Palestinian, former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar told The Jerusalem Post Monday.

"Europe likes appeasement very much; this is one of the most important differences between us and the States," Aznar said in an interview on the Bar-Ilan University campus. "Europeans don't like any problems. They prefer appeasement."

Blog name change

Due to technical issues, the address of this blog had to be changed to http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com .

Sorry for the inconvenience!

June 7, 1936: Arabs destroy 18,000 trees in 3 days

From the whining you often hear from Palestinians about their olive groves (68,000 hits on Google), you'd think that they felt that fruit trees were sacred and not meant to be politicized.

Oh well, another Palestinian Arab myth gone.

A senior Palestinian official said Israel's 38th annual Jerusalem Day marked a 'black day in Palestinian history,' even as thousands of Israelis celebrated on Monday to mark Israel's reunification of Jerusalem.

Judging from the fact that the most notable days on the Palestinian cultural calendar are Yom Haatzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim, I hereby wish that every day of the year should be equally black for them.

(You'd think that with their purported 2000 year history that they'd have some happy holidays too, wouldn't you?)

Excellent Washington Times editorial

Nice to see an American newspaper that "gets it."

A peace process in grave danger

Aside from the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will hold a summit meeting June 21 to coordinate Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, virtually all of the news right now is bleak.
Mr. Abbas's continuing failure to take action against Palestinian terrorist organizations and lawless criminal gangs in PA-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip and West Bank is eroding his credibility as a leader; if the deterioration in the PA is not arrested very soon, Mr. Abbas could be swept aside by the rejectionists, as Hamas and the gangs become dominant forces in Palestinian life. As the situation worsens, a respected Israeli citizen-soldier like outgoing Israel Defense Force Chief of Staff Gen. Moshe Ya'alon (a man who is hardly given to bombast) warns that Mr. Abbas has not abandoned maximalist demands like the "right of return." Yasser Arafat employed this demand five years ago at the Camp David summit to destroy that opportunity for a negotiated peace settlement. According to Gen. Ya'alon, if Mr. Abbas sticks to this position and manages to achieve an independent Palestinian state, he could be setting the state for war with Israel.
To be sure, Mr. Ya'alon is not a disinterested observer. He is being forced into retirement in part because of his political disagreements with Mr. Sharon over disengagement. But in an interview with Ha'aretz last week, the general (whose temperament and overall approach bear a resemblance to the style of former Sen. Sam Nunn) was extraordinarily blunt, warning that Mr. Abbas's Fatah movement is embarked on a course that will permit Hamas to take over Gaza; that if Hamas is permitted to keep its arms when Gaza voters go to the polls, you will have "armed gangs playing at pretend democracy"; and that the Israeli Army may need to go back into Gaza at some point because of the instability there.
A senior officer in one of Mr. Abbas's own Palestinian security services, speaking to the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv last week, said that the Palestinian political echelon has given no orders to defeat Hamas. The officer, who would not give his name, said that Palestinian security chiefs do not fully accept the authority of the man who is supposed to be their boss, PA Interior Minister Nasser Youssef, adding that Mr. Youssef doesn't give orders anyway. "Hamas is growing stronger in Gaza," the officer said. "It is much more organized than our side [the PA] and more disciplined."
Right now, a continuation of the same vicious cycle that has been in effect since the signing of the first Oslo agreement on September 13, 1993 -- one that has continued under Labor and Likud governments alike -- seems inevitable: Israel's government makes concessions previously thought to be unthinkable. Jerusalem withdraws from territory, grants political recognition to Palestinian national movements and aspirations and releases prisoners jailed for crimes of violence in exchange for Palestinian promises to prevent terrorism against Israel. The Palestinians then pocket the Israeli concessions and proceed to either encourage terrorism or act sporadically and ineffectively to prevent it. Israel spends countless time unsuccessfully pleading with the Palestinians to fulfill their part of the bargain. Eventually things spiral out of control, terrorist attacks become unbearable and Israel responds by assassinating terrorist leaders and reoccupying territory in self-defense.
Consider the situation right now. Although public-opinion polls have shown that Israelis decisively favor Mr. Sharon's plan to leave Gaza, Israeli society is going through a very difficult period, as its people engage in a wrenching public debate over the logistics of how to uproot their fellow countrymen from territory captured in a defensive war, territory many of these people called home for decades. While this is going on, Mr. Sharon has released another 398 Palestinians imprisoned for terrorist activities and other violent attacks from Israeli jails, bringing to approximately 900 the number released since Messrs. Abbas and Sharon held their summit in February. The 900 are overwhelmingly comprised of Palestinians who were involved in unsuccessful attempts to carry out terrorist actions, such as transporting a suicide bomber or shooter to the scene of attack during the past five years. Mr. Sharon is very understandably unenthusiastic about releasing such people, but has agreed to do so in an effort to bolster Mr. Abbas.
Yet it is becoming increasingly difficult for Israel to continue taking extroardinary risks to help Mr. Abbas out of the difficulties he is creating for himself with his ineffectual leadership --particularly as conditions grow more chaotic and lawless in the West Bank and Gaza. On Wednesday, for example, a regional leader of Mr. Abbas's Fatah organization was assassinated by five gunmen near the West Bank town of Nablus. On Saturday, gunmen briefly abducted a Palestinian diplomat in Gaza. Yesterday, gunmen, some of them members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated with Mr. Abbas' own Fatah organization, took over three government buildings in Nablus to protest their ineligibility to join the Palestinian police.
Meanwhile, Hamas is furious over Mr. Abbas's decision to indefinitely postpone elections that had been scheduled to take place next month. In recent months, when Hamas has had internal political disputes with Mr. Abbas, it has fired rockets and missiles at Israeli communities. If this occurs in the next few weeks without a substantial response from the PA, it will further weaken Mr. Abbas. Also, the IDF said it thwarted an attempt by the Damascus-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad to carry out a suicide bombing in Jerusalem on Thursday.
Mr. Abbas may have the best of intentions, but his failure to take action against the rejectionists and thugs is doing severe damage to his credibility.

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!