Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, June 24, 2005

Supreme court allows towns to destroy private buildings - will the ISM protest?

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments can force property owners to sell out and make way for private economic development when officials decide it would benefit the public, even if the property is not blighted, and the new project's success is not guaranteed.

The landmark 5-4 ruling provided the strong affirmation state and local governments had sought for their increasing use of eminent domain for urban revitalization, especially in the Northeast, where many city centers have decayed, and the suburban land supply is dwindling.

[...]Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the majority Thursday, cited past cases in which the court has interpreted 'public use' to include not only such traditional projects as bridges or highways, but also slum clearance and land redistribution. He concluded that a 'public purpose' such as creating new jobs in a depressed city can also satisfy the Fifth Amendment.

So when are we going to see Rachel Corrie's parents and friends standing in front of bulldozers in American slums?

Or will they argue that a strip mall is more of the public interest than Jews stopping arms-smuggling tunnels and terrorist hideouts?

Perhaps, just perhaps, they can resolve the contradiction by arguing that killing Jews is in fact in the public interest, as the ISM evidently believes.

Wiesenthal Center Letter to United Church of Christ on Divestment

This relates to the last article. It is a good letter being written to people who don't give a damn about the human rights of Jews.

The Rev. John H. Thomas
General Minister and President
United Church of Christ
700 Prospect Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44115-1000

Dear Rev. Thomas,

In the name of more than 400,000 member families of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, we express our deep concern and dismay regarding resolutions to be considered at the General Synod that call for the dismantling of Israel’s security barrier, and divestment from companies doing business with Israel.

One of us is writing from Israel, where earlier today a young woman from Gaza, Faha Samir, had permission on a humanitarian medical request to cross into Israel to seek medical treatment. By the grace of G-d, and through a combination of an anti-terror security fence and other protective Israeli measures, she was foiled from what she admitted was her plan – to blow up Soroka Hospital, which offers medical services to Jews and Palestinians alike. Ten kilograms of explosives were wrapped around her body.

Resolution #16 is entitled “Tear Down the Wall.” It boggles the mind that a major denomination could even think of endorsing such a slogan. We cannot fathom what mixture of naivete, lack of a real grasp of the facts on the ground, and wholesale embrace of the Palestinian narrative produced such folly. Temporary walls and strong preventive security measures are saving innocent Israeli lives – Jewish and Arab– every day. Such defenses should be supported and endorsed by those who care about saving lives, and obtaining the peace that will eventually obviate the need for such measures.

As you are well aware, there has been real movement towards that peace for several months. Israelis and Palestinians have talked and negotiated with each other, for the first time in years. Secretary Rice is still in the region, helping the sides hammer out the fine points of agreements. Why would the UCC introduce resolutions against the security barrier and for divestment just now, when the rest of the world is trying so hard to offer encouragement to the fragile talks, and the United States has thrown its full prestige behind making them succeed?

Has the UCC not considered that such resolutions will be dangerously counterproductive? What are its goals? The easing of Israel’s grip on Palestinians? On the cusp of a painful disengagement that has divided Israelis against each other, Prime Minister Sharon is expending his entire political stock to make sure it happens. Does the UCC want to see the release of prisoners? Israel has released over 900, some of whom have already been apprehended in the process of new attacks against Israeli civilians. What effect can these ill-timed resolutions have, if not to embolden the most extreme elements of Palestinian society, and demoralize Israelis who thought they wanted to press on towards peace? Israel should be encouraged and praised for her efforts, not kicked in the teeth.

Why, then, is the UCC seeking to punish Israel?

When another Protestant denomination recently considered similar resolutions, Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, had this to say. “Israelis are already traumatised and feel that the world is against them. This proposal, if it is agreed, would be another knife in the back. Christians who owe so much to the Hebrew Scriptures and to Israel itself should not be among those who attack Israel in such a way.”

The UCC should be concerned with the plight of Palestinians, as should all good people. But the UCC has not heard the pain of Israeli terror victims, or to the larger narrative of the majority of Israelis who are prepared to make concessions for peace, but not at the cost of dismantling their country. While paying lip service to security for the Jewish state, the programs, literature and website of the UCC have shown a decided preference for Palestinian voices and carefully sanitized opinions from the extreme of the Israeli left. We can point to the national tours of Palestinians to local churches. When did the other side ever get a hearing?

These resolutions will work against the cause of peace, and inflict collateral damage upon relations between Jews and the UCC, and the safety and security of Jews around the world. We are in a position to know, as the largest Jewish membership organization on the globe. We have worked in the name of peace with leaders of foreign governments and as a UN recognized NGO. One of us signs this letter between conferring with the Arab League and a meeting with the King of Jordan. We have championed human rights concerns abroad, and pioneered programs of intergroup tolerance at home.

To most people, divestment means South Africa, and its apartheid regime. To link it with an Israeli democracy that guarantees and delivers freedoms of worship and expression to its Arab citizens; where an Arab sits on its Supreme Court; where Jewish and Arab students sit side by side in university classrooms – is a moral outrage, and a declaration of malice to the Jewish people.

Divestment also threatens other Jews throughout the world, or at least outside of the United States. Since the hate-fest at Durban in 2001, we have monitored an explosion of antisemitism and attacks against Jews. They are linearly related to one-sided rhetoric of Israeli brutality and oppression. Around the world, whatever Israel does, Jews are made to pay. Divestment – with its popular link to apartheid – adds an important brick to a growing edifice of the vilification of Jews.

For decades after the Holocaust, American Jews have noticed and appreciated the attempts of church groups – including the UCC – to promote cooperation and good will. Please do not underestimate how damaging the three resolutions will be, how much positive feeling will be dissipated at the upcoming Synod if they pass. Please do not underestimate the depth of feeling American Jews have for the security of Israel and Israelis. While when many openly disagree with particular policies of the Israeli government, American Jews are united in their commitment to the Jewish State’s right to protect the lives and safety of her citizens. They see fairness trampled upon. Inestimable damage will result to the relationship between our communities.

At this critical juncture, the Simon Wiesenthal Center believes that the UCC ought to drop these resolutions in the interests of a fuller peace for all the inhabitants of the Middle East. If in fact UCC is interested in learning of the horrific toll and suffering of Israeli citizens, and the related spike in Islamist-inspired antisemitic violence, our institution stands ready to provide expert testimony for your Synod participants.

We respectfully await your response.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein
Assistant Dean Director, Project Next Step

The Christian West has a marked, and growing, prejudice against the state of Israel that the government of that country ignores at its peril. The latest instance will be laid before the Anglican Consultative Council in Nottingham tomorrow, in the form of a recommendation that the 38 provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion should consider divesting themselves of holdings in companies that support the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The recommendation stems from a report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict issued last September by the Anglican Peace and Justice Network (APJN).

The report is a piece of sanctimonious claptrap whose authors didn't even bother to talk to Ariel Sharon's government. It takes scant account of the trauma to which the second intifada has subjected Israeli civilians and endorses policies, such as the right of return of Palestinian refugees since 1948, that would spell the death of the Jewish state. It has rightly been condemned by, among others, the International Council of Christians and Jews, Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and Sir Jonathan Sachs, the Chief Rabbi.

If the APJN recommendation is accepted by the consultative council tomorrow, it will be passed to the individual provinces for a decision on implementation. In most cases, they will do nothing. But the American Episcopal Church, which is a member of the Anglican Communion, is considering disinvestment, while the Presbyterian Church (USA) has already embarked on that course. Even where it is shelved, it will serve as a powerful symbol of hostility to Israel.

Mr Sharon is a "power and stockade Zionist" who believes in accomplishing "facts on the ground". His government is not doing nearly enough to advance the moral case for Israel to those Christians who believe that the present-day population has nothing to do with the Jewish aboriginals and therefore has no right to Palestinian land. The further the Holocaust recedes into history, the less Mr Sharon can count on natural sympathy for the Zionist cause. The fact that two Churches in the United States, a country whose support Israel tends to take for granted, are at the forefront of the moves to disinvest is a salutary warning: moral force is just as important as acquiring the latest military gismos from Washington.

This fact cannot be overstated: Israel's "hasbara" has been criminally incompetent. The moral case for Israel is crystal clear and it is botched daily by the people who supposedly "own the media."

There are a number of reasons for this that are not Israel's fault - endemic anti-semitism; the West's guilt over colonialism; the Left's knee-jerk support for the seemingly weaker party in any conflict regardless of the facts, Islam's manipulation of the West's inability to distinguish between the religion of Islam and the fascist political ideology that it also represents, and the media's desire to frame a conflict as "balanced" where a Sharon who gives land for nothing is considered a "hawk" and an Abbas who denies the Holocaust and whose government has yet to show Israel on any map of the Middle East is a "moderate."

Even so, the job of Israel to show its side to the West has failed miserably. Israel already lost the semantic war ("illegal occupation", "settlements", "Palestinian") and it has so far not managed to make much of a dent in presenting its moral case. There are of course some shining exceptions, examples of individual organizations like MEMRI and Honest Reporting who manage to point ou the truth among the deceptions. But from an Israeli government level the incompetence has been stunning, not the least because of self-loathing Israelis who are more than happy to go in front of foreign cameras and tell reporters what they already want to hear.

The number of Israeli government representatives who forcefully and accurately can make Israel's case have been few. Netanyahu was very good when he was Israel's ambassador to the US, and Moshe Arens used to be excellent, as was Sharansky when he was in the government. But it is not enough, and it hurts Israel immensely.

And when it gets to the point that churches, institutions that supposedly are meant to be the leaders in morality, openly support the terrorists and oppose those who want peace and freedom for all, it is clear that Israel has failed at getting her message out.

The PA is finished

The PA is being run by a bunch of wimps who get no respect from anyone. Their days are numbered unless they can figure out a way to actually put some force behind their "peaceful" words.

Oh, and when they say they are against violence, it means against themselves, not against Israelis.

BALATA REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank - Gunmen in a refugee camp opened fire Wednesday, disrupting a lecture from the Palestinian prime minister about the need to end violence. The brazen shooting highlighted the difficulty of his task.

'This country needs order, needs quiet,' Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia shouted, repeating a theme he has pressed for weeks. But even as he spoke, gunfire rang out, startling Qureia and putting his bodyguards on high alert.

Associated Press Television News footage showed militants angrily waving their weapons as Qureia's security guards �� their rifles trained on the gunmen �� stood at the windows of the building where the prime minister was speaking in the Balata camp next to the city of Nablus.

'Don't listen to them. Don't be scared, don't let these gunmen run the show,' Qureia implored his audience.

After Qureia's speech, gunmen opened fire again and set off an explosive device about 300 yards from his convoy. No one was injured. Qureia was whisked away.

Beyond ordinary morality

Check out this remarkable article about how Israeli hospitals and doctors treat Arab terrorists, often going above and beyond.
The moral dilemma of treating someone who wants to kill you is beyond my wisdom, but it once again shows the stark contrast between the truly superhuman way that Israeli Jews keep their morality under fire and the subhuman acts that Palestinians routinely practice and support.

June 21, 1938: Why We Need Israel

It is very scary reading the Palestine Post in the 1930s as it watches the rise of Nazism and yet has no idea of the magnitude of the crimes yet to be committed.

Here is a fairly typical article. showing the increasing criminal acts against Jews in Berlin and Vienna in 1938:

On the same front page is this smaller, far more hopeful item, showing Jews who managed to get out of the ovens of Germany to build a new life in Israel. They built a new town on Jewish-owned land with their own hands and escaped the fate of their doomed families in Germany. They even built their own security fence to keep the inevitable Arab terror attacks from reaching them.

This is the story of Israel and anyone who considers this "immoral" hasn't the faintest idea what the word means.

Cross-posted to Palestine Post-ings.

Is it stupidity or denial?

MEMRI has another winner:

In a June 15, 2005 editorial titled 'All the Evidence Proves that Al-Zarqawi is an American Agent,' a leading Egyptian government daily Al-Akhbar's states that Al-Zarqawi is working for the U.S. and is massacring Iraqis in an effort to extend the occupation in Iraq. [1] The following are excerpts from the article:

'All the evidence proves that Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi is working for America, because his victims are Iraqis and not [members of] the coalition forces under the command of the American occupation forces in Iraq. Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi's official title is 'leader of Al-Qa'ida's faction in Iraq.' Osama bin Laden is the commander of the Al-Qa'ida organization, and this proves that [Al-Zarqawi's commander,] bin Laden, has [also] been an American agent ever since he operated against the USSR forces in Afghanistan in favor of the Americans!'

So the question is, are Arabs that publish and presumably believe such idiocy struly imbecilic, or is this just an extreme manifestation of the absurd Arab pride that cannot admit that any Arabs can ever do anything wrong?

How Palestinian Arabs are treated under Arab nations' laws

I guess I missed when Amnesty International condemned these laws.

Jordan

Palestinians in Jordan are NOT given full Jordanian citizenship, and DO NOT have the same rights and duties as any other Jordanians. Palestinians in Jordan carry special identification stating that they are not Jordanian. They are disproportionately represented in business, but underrepresented in the army. Information from the Jordanian censuses which distinguishes between Palestinians and pre-Nakba Jordanians is not publicly available; however, the Palestinian population is estimated to be 50-60%.

Saudi-Arabia

An estimated number of 500,000 Palestinians are living in the kingdom of Saudi-Arabia as of December 2004. They are not allowed to hold or even apply for Saudi citizenship, as the new law passed by Saudi Arabia's Council of Ministers in October 2004 ( which entitles expatriates of all nationalities who have resided in the kingdom for ten years to apply for citizenship, with priority being given to holders of degrees in various scientific fields ) has one glaring exception: Palestinians will not be allowed to benefit from the new law because of Arab League instructions barring the Arab states from granting them citizenship in order 'to avoid dissolution of their identity and protect their right to return to their homeland'.

Lebanon

Palestinians in Lebanon are barred from 73 job categories including professions such as medicine, law and engineering. They are not allowed to own property. Unlike other foreigners in Lebanon, they are denied access to the Lebanese healthcare system. The Lebanese government refuses to grant them work permits or permission to own land. The number of restrictions have been mounting since 1990.

Israeli hospital helps Palestinian woman's injuries; she then tries to blow it up

Palestinian depravity keeps getting worse, just when you thought it wasn't possible.

Israel says a 21-year-old Palestinian woman arrested carrying explosives at a Gaza checkpoint planned to blow herself up in an Israeli hospital.

Wafa al-Bis was stopped on her way on her way to Beersheba hospital where she was to receive treatment for burns.

Ms Bis said on Israeli TV she wanted to be a suicide bomber but then later told foreign journalists the explosives were planted on her without her knowledge.

The incident comes amid a rise in violence despite a four-month truce. (Someone please explain what a truce means according to the BBC.)

The Israeli military said Ms Bis was stopped by suspicious soldiers at the Erez crossing point between Gaza and Israel.

The army said she had tried to blow herself up there but the explosives did not detonate.

Israeli officials said Ms Bis, who comes from the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza, was burnt in a cooking accident five months ago, and had received treatment on humanitarian grounds in the Beersheba hospital.

They said she was making another trip for follow-up treatment on Monday, but planned to blow herself up instead.

In an interview shown on Israeli television, Ms Bis said her 'dream was to be a martyr'.

She said she was recruited by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - an off-shoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction.

Ms Bis also said she had been angry over allegations that Israeli guards had ripped out pages of the Koran at a prison in northern Israel, claims Israel denies.

'What angered me and the Palestinian people is the abuse of the Koran,' she said. 'Should we sit in silence with our hands tied?'

Later, she pleaded for mercy because she 'didn't kill anyone'.

Presumably if she has managed to blow herself up with a bunch of Jews she would not be pleading for mercy.

Incidentally, where does the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades get their money from? Could it possibly be from the PA - from the millions coming from Europe and the US? As far as I can tell, no one from the PA has ever declared the Al Aqsa terror group illegal - which sounds to me like they are still on the payroll. Probably "policemen."

Terrorist commander in West Bank says he's going to be a policeman in Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's security forces

Syrian historian: Palestinian moms' wombs are weapons factories (MEMRI)

The following are excerpts from an interview with Syrian historian and author Dr. Georgette 'Attiyya. Syrian TV aired this interview on June 15, 2005.

Dr. Attiyya: The Palestinian woman's womb is a factory for the conflict; it produces fighting children. After this fighting child is produced, he is taught: 'This is your land, this is your country, you will fight for it, stand on it, and die for it.' Therefore, a very important connection exists between motherhood, land, and blood."

My streak may be over...

but SoccerDad threw me a pity mention in the latest (excellent as usual) Haveil Havalim, mentioning my Palestine Post-ings website as well.

Hey, a pity mention is almost as good as a regular one :)

Mediacrity: Reuters Buries the Lead--and the Truth

Example #2659 of Reuters' explicit pro-terror bias in this article in Mediacrity.

The Palestinian Arab Refugees in April, 1948 (Palestine Post articles)

In April 1948, in one of the battles that preceded Israel's War of Independence, the Haganah decisively defeated the Arab fighters for control of Haifa. The Palestine Post has a few articles that describe the Arab refugees from Haifa during this time period that shed a little light upon the basic question of who created the Arab refugee problem?

This is only about Arabs in Haifa (and Jaffa) in a very small timeframe, but it shows the mindsets of the Jews and of the Arabs at the time and that it would be reasonable to expect that these mindsets remained somewhat consistent throughout the duration of the war.

The first article describes the Arab dilemma of whether they should leave a Jewish-controlled Haifa. Notice that these decisions are being made after the major fighting is over, while the truce is being negotiated. These Arabs, at least, were clearly not leaving because of war.

Notice also how the Haganah is bending over backwards to try to respect the rights of the Arab citizens of Haifa, pledging to protect their property and clearly expecting them to return. This is not the behavior of people who are trying to ethnically cleanse an area.

Meanwhile, Arabs were streaming out from Jaffa. A telling detail emerges in this account of the flight to Egypt: that Arabs were the ones encouraging other Arabs to leave, and other Arabs were upset by this. But no where do they say that Jews are expelling Arabs.

The general sense of panic among the Palestinian Arabs at the time can be seen from the tiny article at the end about the run on banks.

The next week, in a recap of the events that happened in Haifa, we see that it was clearly the Arab leadership who encouraged their people to leave. Interestingly, shortly thereafter most of Haifa's Arabs have returned to their intact homes, safe and sound. This is not the first time that the Arab leadership's treatment of the Palestinian Arabs were at cross-purposes with what the people wanted.

Again note how explicitly the Haganah is trying to keep the Arabs in their homes.

This is only a snapshot in time from a single source, and this is all before the outside Arab armies invaded (although this was considered a fait accompli), but it does show a couple of inescapable facts:

* The Haganah was acting in a way totally inconsistent with the desire to create a Jews-only state.
* The Jews were bending over backwards to respect Arab property and lives.
* The Palestinian Arab people were feeling that their leadership was not acting in their best interests. This feeling was amplified in an article the following week, right before Israel declared her independence:

The analogy to today is clear. Today the Palestinian people remain pawns in the hands of their supposed "leaders" - while the people just want to live and be able to raise their families, their leaders are obsessed with the destruction of Israel and are willing to sacrifice as many of their people as necessary to reach that goal. While the Arabs show no respect for the religion or property of others, the Jews retain respect for the human rights of their declared enemies. While the Arabs create nations that are Judenrein, the vast majority of Israelis have no desire to kick out the Arabs from Israel.

Crossposted to Palestine Post-ings.

UPDATE: SoccerDad adds this article with more details about that time period.

Is Sharon abandoning Gaza to make Washington happy?

I continuously look for reasons for the disengagement that makes sense. In a Jerusalem Post op-ed, one reason is given (although this is not the point of the article:

One explanation for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's about-face on the settlements, his willingness to uproot what he himself planted, is that in his mind as a statesman – rather than in his view as a general – a close strategic relationship with the US will do more to protect Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Netanya 50 years down the line than a hilltop settlement.

When Sharon is asked what he is getting for disengagement from Gaza, he – or his aides – reply that they are not getting anything from the Palestinian Authority, but are getting something very substantial from Washington: commitments that the US will back Israel's position on the Palestinian refugee issue and on retaining the large settlement blocs. This is far more important than a billion-dollar arms deal with Beijing.

Sharon has built up an unprecedented relationship with US President George W. Bush, but at the same time he has also stacked Israel's eggs in one basket to an unprecedented degree.

If this is the reason for the pullout, it makes no sense. While Sharon and Bush do have a close relationship, what good does that do Israel when either of them are out of office? To think that this will help things 50 years down the road, or even ten years from now, is foolish as well as foolhardy.

Fatah still recruiting kids to blow themselves up

It is always interesting to hear the deafening silence from the world about daily Palestinian child abuse. And this isn't Hamas; it is Fatah Tanzim, whose salaries are paid by our favorite terrorist in a suit, Mahmoud Abbas.

The Shin Bet and IDF have arrested in recent weeks four Palestinian minors, aged 15 and 16, who were recruited by the Fatah Tanzim to blow up in Israel, details released for publication on Wednesday afternoon revealed.

Arrests conducted by security forces in the Balata and Askar refugee camps in Nablus thwarted the attacks that had been in advanced planning stages.

One of the minors admitted to being recruited by Muhammad Nakib, 21, who was arrested in January this year for involvement in terrorist activities.

The minor told officials that he expressed intentions to follow in the footsteps of his friend, Omar al-For, who blew up in the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv in November 2004 – an attack that claimed the lives of three Israelis.

Two other minors from the Askar camp said they were recruited in April by Tanzim activists in the Balata camp to blow up at an IDF checkpoint near Nablus. The fourth minor said he had been recruited by operatives in Balata to blow up in Israel.

Four suspected recruiters that belonged to the infrastructure were also arrested. According to officials, they had received instructions and funds from Hizbulalh in Lebanon.