The Great Thanksgiving Meeting, December 2, 1917

In the wake of the Balfour Declaration, British and world Zionist leaders gathered at the London Opera House to publicly show their thanks to the British government in promising them a homeland.

The speakers and audience members were almost all Zionists or very sympathetic to Zionism. If one wants to have a good idea of the mindset of early Zionists, reading their own words to their own people is invaluable.

So it is instructive to see how these Zionist leaders talked about the existing Arab population in Palestine. If, as some would claim, Zionism has always been inherently antagonistic to Arabs, and it had always planned to expel the Palestinian Arabs from their homes, one would guess that these speeches would provide an inkling of that plan.

Here is everything said on that day about Arabs in Palestine:

LORD ROBERT CECIL, K.C., M.P said:

We welcome among us not only the many thousands of Jews that I see, but also representatives of the Arabian and Armenian races who are also in this great struggle struggling to be free. (Hear, hear.) Our wish is that Arabian countries shall be for the Arabs, Armenia for the Armenians, and Judaea for the Jews. (Applause.) Yes, and let us add, if it can be so, let Turkey, real Turkey, be for the Turks.

MR. HERBERT SAMUEL, M.P. said:

Three conditions must indeed be observed in any new developments that may take place in Palestine. In the first place, there must be full, just recognition of the rights of the Arabs, who now constitute the majority of the population of that country. Secondly, there must be a reverent respect for the Christian and Mohammedan holy places, which in all eventualities should always remain in the control and charge of representatives of those faiths. (Cheers.)

COLONEL SIR MARK SYKES

And if there is one thing that gives me great pleasure here to-day it is to feel that you—at this turning-point in your history, when the Government made its Declaration—you thought not only of yourselves, but you thought also — and afterwards you will look back with joy on the fact—when the hope of redemption was held out to you, you thought not only of yourselves but also of your fellows in adversity, the Armenians and the Arabs. (Lend cheers.)

The British Chief Rabbi:

The spirit of the Declaration was that of absolute justice, whether to Jews out of Palestine or to non-Jews in Palestine. They especially welcomed in it the reference to the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine. That was but a translation of the basic principle of the Mosaic legislation. (Cheers.)

"SHAHK ISMAIL ABDUL-AL-AKKI addressed the meeting. He spoke in Arabic, and his speech was translated by Mr. I. Sieff, who mentioned that the speaker was under sentence of death by the Turkish Government for having joined the Arab national movement":

Shahk Ismail said he desired to tender deep gratitude to the British nation and the British Government for affording his countrymen and himself help and asylum in their hour of persecution. His country was held in chains by the Turks, who were supplied with German gold, and he looked with confidence to England and France to deliver them from bondage, as he believed in the ultimate good over evil, and was confident in the victory of the Allies. He not only spoke as an Arab, but as a "Moslem" Arab, having studied five years in Theological Schools and being granted a Degree, and it was the duty of every Moslem to participate in the movement for the liberation of their countrymen.

The meeting was to celebrate the great act of the British Government in recognising the aspirations of the Jewish people, and he appealed to them not to forget in the days of their happiness that the sons of Ishmael suffered also. They had been scattered and confounded as the Jews had been, and now began to arise, fortified with the sense of martyrs. He hoped that Palestine would again flow with milk and honey. (Cheers.)

M. H. N.
MOSTDITCHIAN, a member of the Armenian Delegation, said he availed himself of the opportunity of giving their Jewish brethren the heartiest greetings of the Armenians — (cheers) —and sincerest congratulations for the dawn about to break upon the glad valleys of their ancestral land. ...It was not the time to say what the Armenians had suffered during the last three years—a state of things to which the worst pogrom was a heaven; but they, as well as the Jews, looked towards "tomorrow" with great fervour as a result of the Declaration. They had waited long enough with their Jewish brethren, for centuries and centuries, and these two nations as well as the Arabs would make Palestine another Promised Land and a Garden of Eden—a centre to which humanity might look up. (Cheers.)

MR. NAHUM SOKOLOW: (later to become president of the World Zionist Organization and to write his own History of Zionism, 1600-1918)

Relations between Jews and Arabs had hitherto been scanty and spasmodic, largely owing to mutual ignorance and indifference. There were no relations whatever between the two nations as such, because the oppressive Power did not recognise either of them, and whenever points of connection began to develop they were destroyed by intrigue, to the detriment of both nationalities. We believe that the present hour of crisis and the opening of a large perspective for epoch-making developments offer a fruitful opportunity for a broad basis of permanent cordial relations between two peoples who are inspired by a common purpose. We mean a real entente cordiale between Jews, Arabs, and Armenians, such an entente cordiale having already been accepted in principle by leading representatives of these three nations. From such a beginning we look forward with confidence to a future of intellectual, social, and economic co-operation; we are one with the Arabs and Armenians to-day in the determination to secure for each of us the free choice of our own destinies. We look with fraternal love at the creation of the Arab kingdom, re-establishing Semitic nationality in its glory and freedom, and our heartiest wishes go out to the noble, hardly-tried Armenian nationality for the realisation of their national hopes in their old Armenia. Our roots were united in the past, our destinies will be bound together in the future.

A few days later, Mr. Sokolow in a later demonstration said:

We appreciate deeply the important remarks offered by our distinguished friend Sir Mark Sykes on the subject of the relations between the Jews, the Arabs, and the Armenians. My reply to these remarks is: We are Zionists—not only Zionists for ourselves, but also for the Arabs and the Armenians as well. Zionism means faithfulness to one's own old country, to one's own old home. Zionism means consciousness of a nation. Can we Jews be ignorant of the fact that the Arab nation is a noble nation which has been persecuted? Is not the co-operation between the Arabs and ourselves, the Jews, in the Middle Ages for civilisation and for true culture written in our hearts and deep-rooted in our conscience? Our membership of the Semitic race, our title to a place in the civilisation of the world and to influence the world and take our share in the development of civilisation, have always been emphasised. If racial kinship really counts, if great associations exist which must serve as a foundation for the future, these associations exist between us and the Arabs. I believe in the logic of these facts. In the principle of nationality lies the certainty of our justice. There lies also the certainty of our brotherhood with the Arabs and the Armenians. We look most hopefully to the happy days when these three nations will create—in fact they have already created in the consciousness of some of their leaders—an entente cordiale in the countries of the Near East which have been neglected for so long. We are not going to take away anybody's property or to prejudice anybody's rights. We are going to find the land which is available and to settle down wherever there is room, and to live in the best relations with our neighbours—to live and to let the others live. Palestine is not yet a populated, civilised, prosperous country. We are going to make it so by investing our means, our energies, and our intelligence....

We Zionists hate the word toleration, and Sir Mark Sykes really struck the very point when he condemned the word. We don't like mere toleration by non-Jews, and we don't want them to be tolerated. We know that Palestine is full of sanctuaries and of holy places, holy to the Christian world, holy to Islam, holy to ourselves. Are we blind not to see that there are these places of worship and of veneration? Palestine is the very place where religious conflicts should disappear. There we should meet as brethren, and there we should learn to love each other, not merely to tolerate each other. (Applause.)

Even in the wake of an astounding political victory, the Zionists took pains to say that they wanted to be partners with the Arabs; that they were looking forward to Arab states becoming independent side-by-side with the Jewish state; that Zionism should inspire the Arabs and other oppressed peoples to greater heights.

The worst that can be said about the early Zionist vision of Jewish/Arab unity is that it was hopelessly optimistic, that wishful thinking was allowed to trump common sense (as history was to show only a few years later as the Arabs, goaded by "leaders" who were motivated out of self-aggrandizement and pure anti-semitism, started their first deadly riots against Jews in Palestine.) But to read these words and conclude that the early Zionist leaders had anything but respect for their Arab neighbors would be to be purposefully blind.

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Latest PalArab Annapolis demands

Palestine Press Agency notes (autotranslated, cleaned up:)

Dr. Saeb Erakat, head of the Negotiations Affairs in the Palestine Liberation Organization, said that the instructions of President Mahmoud Abbas were not to sign any agreement or treaty with the Israeli side in Annapolis unless they include the release of all Palestinian prisoners without exception.

Erekat stressed during his meeting with a number of wives and mothers of prisoners and detainees in Tulkarem this evening, that any "treaty or agreement with the Israeli side is unacceptable and will not sign unless it also includes opening all offices of the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem, and the complete elimination of the settlements, and withdraw from the West Bank." He stressed that this is not disputed.

Once again, the Palestinian Arabs have shown that they have no ability to even think about compromise.

Which means that once again, their so-called leaders are willing to sentence their own people to more decades of misery rather than accept anything that falls short of their maximal demands.

And in fifty years, after they have killed a few more thousand of their own and perhaps a few hundred Jews, their grandchildren will be saying that they will now consider accepting the Barak offer.

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Hamas arrests al-Dura's father

From AP:

Hamas security briefly detained on Saturday the father of a Palestinian boy who became a national symbol when he was killed during intense fighting in Gaza seven years ago.

Jamal al-Dura, 44, said he was held for four hours in a central Gaza police station and interrogated for allegedly shooting in the air during a family wedding. Al-Dura, a Fatah supporter, denied the accusations and said he can't carry guns because of his medical condition.

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Is Zionism racist?

During my (so-far) civil dialog with Palestinian Arabs in the messages, one recurring theme that my second correspondent is convinced of is the racist origins of Zionism.

This has been a basic motif whenever critics of Israel start their arguments to Western audiences, as the accusation of "racism" is emotionally charged and provokes a visceral disgust at the accused. It is not always easy to strip such an emotional argument down into any sort of logical context, but it is still worth taking seriously if only to fully air it out. After all, it wasn't that long ago that the UN agreed with this vile formula that "Zionism is the same as racism."

The anti-Israel crowd will bring up supposed evidence of racism - out-of-context quotes from Zionist leaders, real-life examples of discrimination against Arabs in Israel, the entire 1948 war as an example of Zionist aggression against Arabs, the "law of return," plus the colonialist charge we recently discussed, with the implication that colonialists always looked at the natives of the colony as subhuman savages.

The pro-Israel crowd typically answers these charges by pointing out that Arabs have equal rights in Israel, that Israeli Arabs are in much better shape than those of Arab nations, and that it is hypocritical to accuse Israel of racism when Arab nations are much worse.

Even the brilliant speech by Chaim Herzog in response to that infamous UN resolution used this same formula:

We in Israel have endeavored to create a society which strives to implement the highest ideals of society -- political, social and cultural -- for all the inhabitants of Israel, irrespective of religious belief, race or sex.

Show me another pluralistic society in this world in which despite all the difficult problems, Jew and Arab live together with such a degree of harmony, in which the dignity and rights of man are observed before the law, in which no death sentence is applied, in which freedom of speech, of movement, of thought, of expression are guaranteed, in which even movements which are opposed to our national aims are represented in our Parliament.

The Arab delegates talk of racism. What has happened to the 800,000 Jews who lived for over two thousand years in the Arab lands, who formed some of the most ancient communities long before the advent of Islam. Where are they now?

The Jews were once one of the important communities in the countries of the Middle East, the leaders of thought, of commerce, of medical science. Where are they in Arab society today? You dare talk of racism when I can point with pride to the Arab ministers who have served in my government; to the Arab deputy speaker of my Parliament; to Arab officers and men serving of their own volition in our border and police defense forces, frequently commanding Jewish troops; to the hundreds of thousands of Arabs from all over the Middle East crowding the cities of Israel every year; to the thousands of Arabs from all over the Middle East coming for medical treatment to Israel; to the peaceful coexistence which has developed; to the fact that Arabic is an official language in Israel on a par with Hebrew; to the fact that it is as natural for an Arab to serve in public office in Israel as it is incongruous to think of a Jew serving in any public office in an Arab country, indeed being admitted to many of them. Is that racism? It is not! That, Mr. President, is Zionism.

Zionism is our attempt to build a society, imperfect though it may be, in which the visions of the prophets of Israel will be realized. I know that we have problems. I know that many disagree with our government's policies. Many in Israel too disagree from time to time with the government's policies ... and are free to do so because Zionism has created the first and only real democratic state in a part of the world that never really knew democracy and freedom of speech.

While all of this is true, it would not convince any Arab critic. They would point out that fundamentally Arabs are still second-class citizens in Israeli society, and that for all the talk of Arab accomplishments in Israel, it is somewhat condescending - somewhat like how Saudi Arabia might brag about women's rights in the kingsom nowadays.

I firmly believe that all of this is a smokescreen - that very few of Israel's critics really care about this real or imagined discrimination, and they are using this as a rhetorical device to destroy Israel, one weapon among many. It is an emotional argument dressed up as a logical one. This belief is a major reason that the actual issue has not been dealt with too much - Israel's supporters feel that even addressing these issues somehow gives them legitimacy.

Even so, I think that there is a tiny germ of truth in such absurd talk, and it needs to be addressed honestly and forthrightly. Truth is not anything to be afraid of, even when it reveals that things are not entirely black and white.

Any discussion of the topic needs to do away with the word "racism." To say that Zionism is racist is absurd by any real definition of the term, and even with the broadest definition it does not apply. After all, a large number of Israelis are descended from Arab Jews and there are Israelis of every race. The term is used purely as a club to incite.

So Israel's critics need to define "racism" to begin with. This accomplishes two things: it establishes a means to communicate without both sides talking past each other, and it also points out that criticizing Israel in a vacuum without seeing it in context is itself a form of discrimination. If every nation on Earth is equally or more guilty of the same thing, this doesn't excuse it but it also shows that the accuser probably has an agenda that is totally unrelated to the accusation.

Nevertheless, there is a fundamental issue: is the establishment of a homeland for the Jews a discriminatory act against the Arabs that lived there? Taking away the discrimination that Arabs have against, well, everybody else, taking away the fact that Arabs can become MKs and judges in the Jewish state - even ignoring all those issues, is the basic idea of Zionism discriminatory?

We can look at this issue from a number of angles.

Let's first look definitionally. As I mentioned in a previous post, a good definition of Zionism is:

Zionism is the national revival movement of the Jews. It holds that the Jews are a people and therefore have the right to self-determination in their own national home. It aims to secure and support a legally recognized national home for the Jews in their historical homeland, and to initiate and stimulate a revival of Jewish national life, culture and language.

So pure Zionism doesn't address the issue either way. It is a pro-Jewish movement, not an anti-Arab or anti-Gentile movement. It defines, accurately, Jews as being a distinctive people and it asserts the right for the Jewish people for self-determination.

Historically, there is no question that early Zionists discussed the issue of the existing Arab inhabitants in Palestine, and even that some of them anticipated the possibility of a war sometime down the road. I would argue that any such discussions were meant as contingency planning, not as a strategy (at least from the mainstream Zionists, as opposed to the Revisionists.) I've already addressed why I believe that ordinary Zionists at the time had an intense desire for peace with the Arabs without bloodshed, that they wanted to live together. If I can find a dozen quotes yearning for peaceful co-existence for every quote that seems to prepare for war, I think that it could help prove my point. Unfortunately, historians with an agenda will purposefully ignore such quotes.

Moreover, contrary to critics' claims that Zionism always intended to take Israel by force, the Zionists were happy with the original UN Partition plan - where they would have received a tiny, indefensible state with a large Arab minority, without firing a shot. History shows that all their actions were diplomatic, and that the Haganah was created purely for defense against the Arab riots that broke out periodically against the Jews.

In practice, however, no one can deny there was an element of supremacy in the early European Zionists - not only towards the Arabs, but also towards Sephardic Jews, towards religious Jews and others. There was discrimination towards other groups that often goes together with pride for their own.

And, at the crux of the issue: Israel is meant to be a state for all Jews, and while it is not conscious, this means that non-Jews will always suffer some discrimination. It may be tiny, it may be less than other countries, but by definition it will always be there. Israel will discriminate in immigration policy by definition, for example.

As that issue of the Palestine Post I quoted before stated it, in 1946:

[Dr. Weizman] showed an anxiety to be fair...the most important example was his plea for a solution which would accept "the line of least injustice." The Committee shoudl analyze that phrase closely. It will help them to map the area of genuine conflict. For the Arab citizen of Palestine, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are not at stake. Neither as an individual nor as a member of a culture-group is he threatened. The State visualized in the Jewish Agency's case will cause him loss in one single respect: Palestine cannot become an Arab state, like the countries around it. The the Arab national leaders would have it otherwise is understandable; that the special rights and special needs of the Jewish people should be sacrificed is impossible. If there are just claims on both sides they do not hold the scales level.

And this indeed is the issue. It is not a case of Palestinian Arab human rights in a vacuum, it is a case of competing human rights cases of Palestinian Arabs and Jews in the same land. It is literally impossible to have both sides get 100% of what they want.

There will be discrimination.

It is not ideal, but it needs to be acknowledged. By realizing this basic fact, which too many Zionists sweep under the rug, then we can get closer to what needs to be done: assert the rights of Jews to live in their own homeland with full rights in every sense of the word, including the rights of self-determination - and to work assiduously to minimize the discrimination against non-Jews who live in that same land, without jeopardizing the Jewish rights.

Discrimination is a necessary evil - and it must be minimized.

Calling for a single, democratic state may sound to the naive as a just solution, but it is discriminatory against the Jews who live there because it would destroy their right to self-determination.

No matter what happens, someone's rights will be reduced. The goal is to be cognizant of this and minimize these instances as much as possible while insuring the maximum human rights for all. In Weizman's words, we need to find "the line of least injustice."

Israel, for all its faults, has done a magnificent job of walking that line - and it could do better. Every day, Israelis struggle with the myriad of issues of balancing the Jewish rights and the Arab rights in the land. Sometimes they err on the Jewish side, sometimes they err on the Arab side. The questions of army service, or providing service to Arab towns, of land ownership, of allowing Arab members of Knesset to do what would be considered treasonous in other countries - not to mention the huge number of issues on how to treat Jews and Arabs in the "territories" - these are all very real issues, and they all have (at least) two sides.

So, yes, Israel is often discriminatory against Arabs. (At times, it has discriminated against Jews as well.) The key is not to pretend it isn't there - it is to tackle the issues head on, to maximize the rights of all people in the land.

So Israel is far from perfect, but to call Israel or Zionism "racist" is simply nonsense.

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Jews left behind 100,000 sq km of land in Arab countries

From JPost:

The government needs to bring up the issue of hundreds of thousands of Jews who left their homes in Arab countries following the establishment of the State of Israel as part of any future peace agreement with the Palestinians, the president of the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries said Thursday.

About 850,000 Jews fled Arab countries after Israel's founding in 1948, leaving behind assets valued today at more than $300 billion, said Heskel M. Haddad.

He added that the New York-based organization has decades-old property deeds of Jews from Arab countries on a total area of 100,000 sq.km. - which is five times the size of the State of Israel.

Most of the properties are located in Iraq, Egypt and Morocco, Haddad said.

In an interview, he said that it was imperative for Israel to bring up the issue of the Jews who fled Arab countries at any future peace talks - including those scheduled to take place in Annapolis in the coming weeks - since no Palestinian leader would sign a peace treaty without resolving the issue of Palestinian refugees.

Haddad said that the key to resolving the issue rested with the Arab League, which in the 1950s passed a resolution stating that no Arab government would grant citizenship to Palestinian refugees, keeping them in limbo for over half a century.

At the same time, the Arab League urged Arab governments to facilitate the exit of Jews from Arab countries, a resolution which was carried out with a series of punitive measures and discriminatory decrees making it untenable for the Jews to stay in the countries.

"No Jews from Arab countries would give up their property and home and come to Israel out of Zionism," Haddad said.

He said that the Israeli government was "myopic" not to utilize this little-known information, which he said should be part of a package financial solution to solving the issue of Palestinian refugees.

An Israeli ministerial committee on claims for Jewish property in Arab countries, which is currently headed by the Pensioners Minister Rafi Eitan, has been virtually dormant since it was established four years ago.

What's new here is the actual proof of such vast amounts of land that Arabs had confiscated from Jews, dwarfing the size of Israel itself. The $300 billion number is also new to me.

Arabs, of course, will refuse to discuss their role in their real ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab countries in the late 1940s and 1950s. They will claim that Zionists are the ones who forced the Jews out (their only example is a much-disputed case of a series of bombs in Iraq in 1950, and ignore the series of anti-Jewish laws and terror attacks that occurred throughout the Arab world.)

It is indeed shortsighted for the Israeli government not to raise this issue during negotiations. The facts about the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab countries, and the land taken away from them, should have always been as prominent as the Palestinian "refugee" problem.

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Israel fixes Gaza electricity problem

As the misozionistic world (and their useful idiots) keep claiming that Israel has already started reducing electricity to Gaza, it turns out that Israel has done the opposite: gone out of their way to fix Gaza electrical grid problems:

Earlier this week a technical malfunction in the electricity network in northern Gaza caused a power outage that some Palestinians thought was the beginning of the "Gaza blackout" plan proposed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

To solve the problem, the Israel Electric Corp. (IEC) agreed to transfer the equipment needed to fix the network to their Gazan counterparts. Senior Israeli officials confirmed that the IDF had facilitated the transfer.

The officials further said that the operation had been a success and the Palestinians were able to restore power.

The IEC emphasized that none if its personnel entered Gaza or directly participated in the repairs.

Palestine Press Agency (Arabic) quotes Maariv as saying that Israeli involvement went much deeper (autotranslated):

[The IDF] decided to introduce the crew of technicians from the Israeli Electricity Company in the Gaza Strip under heavy security protection since been transferred professionals Israelis are wearing flak jackets in armored cars within the sector and after the Israeli Electricity Company technicians careful examination lasted several hours, Israeli technicians returned to Israel after it was identified that cause the imbalance in power outages north of the sector and found that the defect lies in a malfunction in the electrical transformer located in an area Attatrh Beit Lahiya.

After further assessment of the situation on the Israeli side, ...the Israeli army decided to introduce professional Israelis once again within the sector to the settlement of Nisanit, where they previously divorcing electric transformer from the Attatrh They took him to the settlement of Nisanit, where they [repaired] under the cover of air and land and sea by the Israeli army.

What a bunch of genocidal racists these Israelis are, risking their own lives to fix the electricity of people who overwhelmingly want to destroy them!

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Runner-up

Thanks to Soccer Dad for nominating my post, November 1947 and Annapolis déjà vu, for the weekly non-council Watcher of Weasels honor. The post came in tied for a distant second, but second place is second place!

The first place Council post by JoshuaPundit, "Land for Peace" American-style, is excellent.

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Another tunnel collapse, another dead terrorist

Palestine Press Agency reports (autotranslated):

Presse said Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip this evening that the citizen was killed bottleneck effect of the collapse of one of expenditure which is used for smuggling on the Egyptian border with the southern Gaza Strip. "

According to Dr. Hassanein Maaouya director of emergency ambulance and the Ministry of Health death citizen Mohammed Abdul Nabi 34 years bottleneck in one spending Rafah governorate.

Abdul Nabi arrived this evening to Abu Yousef Najjar Hospital Rafah Governorate dead.

Still not sure what "bottleneck" is supposed to mean, but Mr. Abdul Nabi is most sincerely dead.

The 2007 Palestinian Arab self-death count rises to 583.

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This keeps driving me crazy

From AFP:

An Israeli woman places her hands on the Western Wall as she prays at Judaism most sacred site in Jerusalem's Old City.

I've discussed this in the past, but one more time....

The Western Wall is not "Judaism's most sacred site." It is a small part of the retaining wall for a platform that encompassed Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount and the site of the "Kodesh K'dashim" the "Holy of Holies", that is within.

It is easier for many to pretend that the Wall is the holiest site, because then they can guess that it is a trivial solution to divide Jerusalem and give the Temple Mount to the Muslims and the Wall to the Jews. When they admit that the Temple Mount is holier to Jews, then people might start to wonder why the Dome of the Rock was purposefully built on top of Judaism's holiest site. They might start asking questions about whether the Koran mentions Jerusalem, or whether Mohammed ever flew there on a winged horse. They might start to see analogies between the Islamic destruction of Buddha statues, Hindu temples and Jewish holy sites.

They might even start to wonder why the Dome of the Rock, if it was such a holy Muslim site, was pretty much in ruins before the 1920s.

No, it is less messy to keep pretending that the Wall is Judaism's most sacred site, and that the Jews have no religious claim on the Temple Mount.

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Sorry for not posting...

I've been spending way too much time in the messages discussing things with two Palestinian Arabs, and as usual I have too much to say. Others have chimed in as well.

I don't know how long I can keep this up, though. It is fun having a real thread for once in my messages but I prefer blogging - most of the stuff I am saying there I have said on the blog many times. Also, it is clear from the outset that no one will convince anyone else of anything, and I am familiar enough with the "other side's" arguments already. But it has been civil, and for those who want to jump in, I ask that it remains that way.

If you want to peek in, the threads are here.

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Palestinian Arab Holiday Calendar

There seem to be no shortages of celebrations and anniversaries in the Palestinian Arab territories. Every week there seems to be another rally celebrating or protesting or commemorating something, often with violent results.

Here is a handy list of events that were commemorated during the past year that were marked either by a news conference, rally, protest or terror attack. For a few of them I included links to relevant postings I've made. I'm sure I'm missing some but it is a good start if you want to join in on the celebrations.

11/15 - Palestinian Independence Day
11/29 - International Day of Solidarity for the Palestinian People (Partition Day)
12/8 Founding of the PFLP
12/9 Anniversary of Founding of UNRWA
12/14 Founding of Hamas movement
12/27 Anniversary of first Qassam landing in Ashkelon (PIJ)
1/7 Anniversary of Founding of Fatah
2/25 Anniversary of "Ibrahimi mosque" massacre
2/? Anniversary of first Bil'in demonstration
3/1 Founding of DFLP
3/3 Anniversary of the killing of Khalid Al-Dahduh (PIJ)
3/8 International Women's Day
3/9 "Andalusia Week"
3/14 Anniversary of arrest of Ahmad Sa'adat (PFLP)
3/17 Anniversary of arrest of Hussam Khader (Fatah)
3/22 Anniversary of Sheikh Yassin's assassination (Hamas)
3/30 Land Day
3/31 Prophet Moses day
4/1 Anniversary of terror takeover of the Church of the Nativity
4/7 International Children's Day
4/12 Artas Lettuce Festival ("a fitting symbol...of the resilience of the Palestinian people")
4/17 Anniversary of the death of Dr Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi (Hamas)
5/1 Workers' Day
5/3 World Press Freedom Day
5/12 Temporary International Presence in Hebron anniversary
5/15 Naqba Day
5/16 Anniversary of the "liberation" of Southern Lebanon
5/29 Anniversary of the PLO
6/4 Anniversary of "occupation"
6/4 World Environment Day
6/23 Anniversary of Palestinian National Initiative
6/25 Anniversary of the capture of Gilad Shalit
7/9 Anniversary of declaring the separation barrier "illegal"
7/13 Palestinian Popular Front anniversary
8/5 Shefa-'Amr massacre anniversary
8/15 Anniversary of Hezbollah "victory"
8/21 Anniversary burning of Al Aqsa mosque
8/27 Anniversary of assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa (PFLP)
9/28 Anniversary of second Intifada
(varies) Qods Day
(varies) Eid al-Fitr
10/23 Mubarak Al-Hasanat assassination anniversary (PRC)
10/29 Kfar Qasim massacre
11/2 Balfour Declaration
11/11 Arafat's death

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The EU has given Fatah terrorists over $1 billion this year

From IMEMC:

The Palestinian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affirs [sic], Dr. Ahmad Subuh, on Wednesday announced that the amount of aid donated to the Palestinian Authority (PA) by the European Union (EU) over the past year had reached approximately one billion and eighty million U.S. Dollars.

Speaking during a joint press conference between the European Commission in the West Bank and the Palestinian ministry of Foreign Affairs in the central West Bank city of Ramallah, Dr. Subuh thanked the EU for the aid, adding that the amount donated had increased significantly from last year's total of 980 million US$, and the previous year's total of 880 million US$.

Last month, the White House requested some $435 million in additional aid for Palestinian Arabs, on top of the $137 million it gives to UNRWA annually (out of a budget of some $505 million) and the $77 million requested earlier this year.

That's about $2 billion earmarked for Palestinian Arabs, with no dip in reaction to their electing a genocidal government in 2006 nor in their utter failure to stop Hamas from taking over Gaza this year.

As previously posted, there is a strong direct correlation between the amount of money that the Palestinian Arabs get and the number of murders they commit occur the following year:



All this money is meant to "moderate" the Palestinian Arabs, yet it appears to have the opposite effect.

Things have been relatively peaceful in the weeks leading up to Annapolis, with much fanfare over the evident reduction of violence in Nablus due to an extra few hundred PA security forces being deployed there. But the Palestinian Arabs have shown self-restraint before when it was in their interests, and being in the spotlight before the conference is a strong incentive to lay off the mayhem for a while. (The US gave a single week's worth of relative peace in Nablus a reward of $1.3 million.) This week's renovation of Joseph's Tomb is cosmetic in more ways than one.

I've noted that there was a similar reduction of violence in the weeks before the UN vote on Partition sixty years ago, as the world's attention focused on Palestine. Immediately after the vote, of course, there was a huge surge of terror.

Since this year is a record-breaker in terms of dollars - wait to see how "peaceful" next year will be.

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Al-Dura trial update

For those following the French hearing about the infamous Mohammed al-Dura videotape, Media Backspin has the latest:

HonestReporting together with Take-A-Pen covered this afternoon's hearing in France where raw footage of the Mohammed Dura was publicly screened for the first time. HonestReporting/Take-A-Pen's Alain Benjamin, who saw the video in court, discussed by phone the proceedings with MediaBackspin editor Pesach Benson.

What did the raw footage show?

We can definitely say that nobody can say who was shooting at who. Charles Enderlin said in court that the Palestinians started shooting first, but in the end, there's no way we can say what happened that day. You can't tell who did what. The assertion from Charles Enderlin, that the Israeli army killed the boy, is totally wrong. The least he could've said was that the boy was killed--but we don't know by who.

There was a dispute over how much footage was to be screened. Was the full video shown?

Charles Enderlin submitted 18 minutes of footage. The judge, without any prompting from Philippe's lawyers, asked what happened to the 27 minutes. Enderlin said on record in court that he had to manipulate some footage that was not relevant to that day. He said he transferred the footage onto DVD for the court. That was amazing.

So she asked if anyone in attendance had seen the full footage. Luc Rosenzweig was there, stood up , and said he saw a tape that was more than 20 minutes long. Richard Landes also stood up. He saw the footage at Enderlin's office. He said the timer he saw was at least 21 minutes long. The judge basically let that issue rest, but there was serious doubt hanging over the room that the footage was tampered or doctored.

After the hearing ended, how did people react to what they saw?

Not one person believed that the version of France 2 was right. Some people maintained that the footage was staged. Others think the footage was real. Clearly, nobody believed that anybody died.

Does the footage vindicate Karsenty?

Everyone was going, "Wow" and talking about whether he'll take action against France 2 for trying to swindle the court. He can wait for the verdict, or sue France 2 for tampering with the tape. He has quite a few options. Clearly, the judge wasn't convinced by France 2's version. The judge's verdict is to be given on February 27.

For background, see Honest Reporting's summary.

For exhaustive analysis, see Augean Stables.

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Jerusalem Protection Law

A small bit of good news:

The Knesset passed the first reading of a bill initiated by Likud Knesset Member Gideon Sa'ar, which requires a two-thirds majority of Knesset Members (MKs) to change the status of Jerusalem.

Currently, it would take 61 of the 120 MKs to change the Basic Law: Jerusalem, which annexed Jerusalem's eastern neighborhoods and the Old City to the capital.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has floated the idea of surrendering parts of the capital to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which demands the entire area of Jerusalem liberated in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The vote in favor of the bill was 54-24, but it must be approved by a committee and pass two more Knesset votes before becoming law. A growing number of Knesset members in Prime Minister Olmert's own Kadima party are against his plan to split Jerusalem. Olmert's close confidant and aide Vice Prime Minister Chaim Ramon has openly promoted handing over parts of the capital to the PA.

The bad news? This bill still has a ways to go before becoming law.

And, unfortunately, the Knesset has ignored its own laws before. I recently blogged about a 1977 law that makes giving land away a grave crime, and it was clearly never enforced during Camp David or Oslo.

So while it is a good sign, Israel needs to be far more forceful about its rights to Jerusalem.

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"A hellish, covetous power"

You gotta hand it to Iranians; they certainly don't bother with political niceties:

Hellish covetous power seeking to weaken Islamic Revolution

Head of Assembly of Experts and Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said here Wednesday that a hellish power in the region is determined to loot Iran's rich natural resources by weakening the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Given the goals behind the US masterminded greater Middle East plan, he said the plot was to bolster Zionist regime and weaken Iran but this was to no avail, Rafsanjani said.

Devoted Iranian nation are the bastion in the campaign against enemies and it is the duty of the officials to be at their services by all means, Rafsanjani said.

See how pragmatic this Iranian "moderate" is?

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