Friday, March 16, 2007
Elder of Ziyon
Friday, March 16, 2007Elder of Ziyon
Friday, March 16, 2007Elder of Ziyon
Thursday, March 15, 2007Elder of Ziyon
Academic fraud, Joseph MassadIsrael's struggle for peace is a sincere one. In fact, Israel desires to live at peace not only with its neighbours, but also and especially with its own Palestinian population, and with Palestinians whose lands its military occupies by force. Israel's desire for peace is not only rhetorical but also substantive and deeply psychological. With few exceptions, prominent Zionist leaders since the inception of colonial Zionism have desired to establish peace with the Palestinians and other Arabs whose lands they slated for colonisation and settlement. The only thing Israel has asked for, and continues to ask for in order to end the state of war with the Palestinians and its Arab neighbours, is that all recognise its right to be a racist state that discriminates by law against Palestinians and other Arabs and grants differential legal rights and privileges to its own Jewish citizens and to all other Jews anywhere. The resistance that the Palestinian people and other Arabs have launched against Israel's right to be a racist state is what continues to stand between Israel and the peace for which it has struggled and to which it has been committed for decades. Indeed, this resistance is nothing less than the "New anti- Semitism".Notice how Massad states Israel's racism as a fact, and only later does he make his argument. The argument is fundamentally that since Israel is meant to be a Jewish state it is by definition racist against non-Jews, and he brings as proof various laws and national symbols that mean to maintain Israel as a Jewish state.
Israel is willing to do anything to convince Palestinians and other Arabs of why it needs and deserves to have the right to be racist. Even at the level of theory, and before it began to realise itself on the ground, the Zionist colonial project sought different means by which it could convince the people whose lands it wanted to steal and against whom it wanted to discriminate to accept as understandable its need to be racist. All it required was that the Palestinians "recognise its right to exist" as a racist state. Military methods were by no means the only persuasive tools available; there were others, including economic and cultural incentives. Zionism from the start offered some Palestinians financial benefits if they would accede to its demand that it should have the right to be racist. Indeed, the State of Israel still does. Many Palestinian officials in the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organisation have been offered and have accepted numerous financial incentives to recognise this crucial Israeli need. Those among the Palestinians who regrettably continue to resist are being penalised for their intransigence by economic choking and starvation, supplemented by regular bombardment and raids, as well as international isolation. These persuasive methods, Israel hopes, will finally convince a recalcitrant population to recognise the dire need of Israel to be a racist state. After all, Israeli racism only manifests in its flag, its national anthem, and a bunch of laws that are necessary to safeguard Jewish privilege, including the Law of Return (1950), the Law of Absentee Property (1950), the Law of the State's Property (1951), the Law of Citizenship (1952), the Status Law (1952), the Israel Lands Administration Law (1960), the Construction and Building Law (1965), and the 2002 temporary law banning marriage between Israelis and Palestinians of the occupied territories.
It is important to stress that this Zionist rationale is correct on all counts if one accepts the proposition of Jewish exceptionalism. Remember that Zionism and Israel are very careful not to generalise the principles that justify Israel's need to be racist but are rather vehement in upholding it as an exceptional principle. It is not that no other people has been oppressed historically, it is that Jews have been oppressed more. It is not that no other people's cultural and physical existence has been threatened; it is that the Jews' cultural and physical existence is threatened more. This quantitative equation is key to why the world, and especially Palestinians, should recognise that Israel needs and deserves to have the right to be a racist state. If the Palestinians, or anyone else, reject this, then they must be committed to the annihilation of the Jewish people physically and culturally, not to mention that they would be standing against the Judeo-Christian God.Here is one of his straw man arguments. Do Jews deny the right for, say, Kurds or Armenians or any historically oppressed people to have their own state? His thesis of Jewish "exceptionalism" would imply that Jews want only an exclusive Jewish state and that no other people deserve one - a claim that is manifestly absurd.
His sleight of hand is in never defining "racism" in any meaningful way, and then affixing the reprehensible label exclusively on Jewish Zionists repeatedly. It is a classic example of Arab projection. Forgetting the fact that non-Jews in Israel have more rights than minorities in most nations do (and certainly in Israel's neighbors), ignoring the fact that Israeli Arabs have risen to unimaginable political heights - even without those arguments which he would probably dismiss as apologetics, the fundamental issue remains that Massad denies Jews the rights that he seems to allow all others.
As for those among us who insist that no resolution will ever be possible before Israel revokes all its racist laws and does away with all its racist symbols, thus opening the way for a non-racist future for Palestinians and Jews in a decolonised bi-national state, Israel and its apologists have a ready-made response that has redefined the meaning of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is no longer the hatred of and discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group; in the age of Zionism, we are told, anti-Semitism has metamorphosed into something that is more insidious. Today, Israel and its Western defenders insist, genocidal anti-Semitism consists mainly of any attempt to take away and to refuse to uphold the absolute right of Israel to be a racist Jewish state.
Thursday, March 15, 2007Elder of ZiyonThe Palestinian new government will continue to support "resistance," according to excerpts from the new government's platform.So not only did Hamas completely win in its vision of how the PA should be run, they are bragging about how they can continue terror attacks according to this document.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh agreed Wednesday on the make-up of the new government, ending weeks of arguments over the candidate for the powerful interior ministry post.
Our Sources reported that the new platform states that, "The government confirms that the resistance is a legitimate right for the Palestinian people."
It goes onto say that, "halting resistance depends on ending the occupation and achieving freedom and the right of return and independence."
The new government also recognizes that "the key to security and stability in the region is in the ending of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, recognition of the right to Palestinian self-determination."
Thus, the statement confirmed, "the government will work with the international community to end the occupation, and to return the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people."
The government "holds fast to the rights of Palestinian refugees, and the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their land and belongings."
- Section I, clause 4, says the government 'holds on to the right of refugees to return to their land and property.'As if that is even in doubt.
The phrase leaves out whether that should be to all of British mandatory Palestine, including what is now Israel, or to a future Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza only.
Thursday, March 15, 2007Elder of Ziyon
Main Orders & Awards
- Nobel Prize with Isaac Rabin and Shimon Peres
- Various honorary awards
- Honorary Ph.D. degree / the University of Jamaat Islamiya in Haidar Abad, India
- Honorary awards by Arab intimates and foreign friends
Thursday, March 15, 2007Elder of ZiyonNot a huge number of replies, but their English speaking readers are solidly against censorship.Was the decision to destroy the folk story collection 'Speak Bird, Speak Again'
...sensible to avoid corrupting the youth? 5.56% (5)
...indicative of a necessity for censorship? ...a "bad omen" for free speech?
Now, this is obviously not a scientific poll, but on the other hand the only people who can participate are those who have access to the Internet and read the most "moderate" Palestinian Arabic news source. And still a plurality of these more modern Arabic speakers support not only the censorship but the actual destruction of the book!Do you support the destruction of the book 'Speak Bird, Speak Again'؟
Yesه 48.52% (7093)
Noافه Don't knowف
Thursday, March 15, 2007Elder of ZiyonGaza - Ma'an - As Palestinians edged a step closer to having a national unity government, clashes between the rival factions of Hamas and Fatah erupted again on Wednesday evening in the Gaza Strip, leaving one Fatah militant dead, and nine other Palestinians injured, and 12 abducted.Our count of PalArabs violently killed this year by each other now stands at 137.
Medical sources in Gaza have confirmed the death of Muhammad T'emeh, 25, an activist in the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah movement. T'emeh died from wounds he sustained late on Wednesday night in confrontations between members of Fatah and Hamas in Beit Lahiya in the north of the Gaza Strip.
T'emeh was shot in his feet which led to the severing of his arteries. He arrived at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in a serious condition.
Also on Wednesday evening, a series of tit-for-tat abductions took place between the two sides, Fatah and Hamas. 12 people were abducted in total, of whom four were released and eight remain in custody of their rivals. Of the remaining eight abductees, four are from Fatah and four from Hamas.
At the same time, armed clashes raged between the two sides, which led to the injury of nine Palestinians.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007Elder of ZiyonAs part of a cultural exchange Palestinian French-German delegation participated Najah National University in cultural exchange forum, which was organized in each of the universities of Frankfurt in Germany, Berbinieh in France during the period from February 17-March 5, 2007.I'm sure that the "how to falsify Palestinian history" was a mistranslation but it is more truthful than was intended, especially as they feed their European hosts propaganda about Israeli atrocities.
Regarding the goal of this partnership Professor Samer Aqrouk it aims to provide information on all the issues of civil society and democratic life, and the issue of citizenship in the Palestinian society and Palestinian immigrants, their whereabouts, their living conditions, as well as the occupation practices and violations against the rights of the Palestinian people exercised, and the separation wall and its impact on the lives of Palestinian rights, as working papers were submitted by the students participants on topics of religion and state (citizenship), and Islam's position on the State-old and new citizens, between religion and international law, and religious freedom in the Arab and Palestinian artists and Palestinian identity, and good governance (good), women in Islam.
He added that during this participation screening of a series of documentary films namely : immigrants in the country, which exposes the suffering of the students at the checkpoints and in particular the students of the An-Najah University, and a Palestinian film reviews occupation practices, and the olive tree, which addresses the issue of how to falsify Palestinian history, as presented to the lives of immigrants living in the Palestinian territories and abroad journey in the search for identity, in addition to the documentaries the university, and the film title (story), which reviews developments of the Palestinian cause since the year 1917 until the year 2005,
Professor Samer it was during the visit to meet with Vice President of the University of Frankfurt, director of cultural relations and external been put forward a set of ideas for future cooperation.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007Elder of ZiyonIn fact, there were entire societies in England (and Scotland) dedicated to the conversion of Jews to Christianity, that seemed to reach their greatest influence in the early to middle 19th century.
The conversion aspect of Christian proto-Zionists seemed to die out as the actual reclamation of Jews to biblical Israel accelerated mid-19th century, and it was hardly mentioned publicly by 1900. Nevertheless, this history is enough to make one pause as to the true intent of today's friendly Christian Zionists. The idea of mass conversions of Jews may no longer make sense but the thought of an ulterior motive that lines Israel's fate up more with perceived prophecies than with what is actually good for Israel is not something that is so easy to overlook, despite the many sincere friends that Israel does indeed have today among the Christian Zionists.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007Elder of ZiyonNablus - Ma'an - An-Najah National University in the northern West Bank city of Nablus is preparing to twin with the universities of Manchester and London through cooperation between the student unions in these universities.
The University of Manchester Student Union passed a motion in its entirety on 7 March to go ahead with a twinning agreement with their counterparts at An-Najah University.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007Elder of ZiyonLONDON (EJP)--- At a landmark conference in London this week leading figures within the British Jewish community explored how to increase charitable donations to Israeli Arabs.Yes - Israeli Jews are raising money from Jews abroad to help out Israeli Arabs.
Speaking at the day-long event on Thursday, senior community leaders said boosting the status and prosperity of the Arabs, who make up 20 percent of Israeli society, is vital to the country’s democracy.
Significantly, the event was backed by the Jewish Agency, the World Zionist Organisation, and the Ministry of Education in Israel.
The Pears Foundation, a Jewish organisation which says it "seeks to promote human and civil rights for all citizens of Israel" organised the event, and said it was designed to bring community leaders together to discuss how best to increase funding to the Arab sector.
...
In a letter to the Pears Foundation ahead of the meeting at London’s Lincoln Centre, Yuli Tamir, the Israeli Education Minister, welcomed the initiative as "enlightened and progressive".
"Israeli leaders have long understood the importance of creating an equal and inclusive society," she wrote.
"Enlightened and progressive initiatives such as this demonstrate the commitment and concern that many Jewish people around the world share with the inhabitants of the State of Israel to create a just, stable and democratic country."
Ze’ev Bielski, executive chairman of the World Zionist Organisation and Jewish Agency, wrote to say: "It is my honour and pleasure to offer my blessings on the occasion of the London symposium on Israeli Arabs.”
Tuesday, March 13, 2007Elder of Ziyon(IsraelNN.com) A source in the Hamas terrorist organization said Tuesday that its operatives were paid with part of the funds transferred by Israel to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
“The [Hamas] Executive Force was a part of the security services which received part of their salaries, just like the other forces,” said the Hamas source. An international boycott of the Hamas-led PA government is still in force inasmuch as the terror group continues to refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist, renounce terrorism and honor past PA agreements.
Israel released $100 million to Abbas as part of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s “good-will gesture” to the PA in the wake of his first meeting with the PA Chairman last December. Abbas aides had no comment on the report.
Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said the money would be earmarked for humanitarian needs and a U.S.-backed programme to strengthen Abbas's presidential guard.Not to mention that every dollar that goes towards "salaries" frees up more suitcase dollars that go towards weapons.
It will not be used to make long-overdue salary payments to Palestinian public sector workers, hard hit by a Western and Israeli embargo of the Hamas-led government, they said.
Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said the funds would be channelled to humanitarian projects and the private sector, but declined to say if any would go towards boosting Abbas's security.
The decision not to allocate funds for salaries angered Hamas, which said the money should be distributed by the Palestinian finance ministry.
"We reject any Israeli conditions on regaining this money. This money belongs to the Palestinian people," Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas told reporters after Friday prayers.
Monday, March 12, 2007Elder of Ziyon
For any journalist worth his or her salt, this should spark a respectful moment of reflection. Not only did this new and awesome technology enable journalists to bring the ugly reality of war to both belligerents (and others around the world), serving as a powerful influence on public opinion and governmental attitudes and actions; it also became an extremely valuable intelligence asset for both Israel and Hezbollah, and Hezbollah especially exploited it.
If we are to collect lessons from this war, one of them would have to be that a closed society can control the image and the message that it wishes to convey to the rest of the world far more effectively than can an open society, especially one engaged in an existential struggle for survival. An open society becomes the victim of its own openness. During the war, no Hezbollah secrets were disclosed, but in Israel secrets were leaked, rumors spread like wildfire, leaders felt obliged to issue hortatory appeals often based on incomplete knowledge, and journalists were driven by the fire of competition to publish and broadcast unsubstantiated information. A closed society conveys the impression of order and discipline; an open society, buffeted by the crosswinds of reality and rumor, criticism and revelation, conveys the impression of disorder, chaos and uncertainty, but this impression can be misleading.
It was hardly an accident that Hezbollah, in this circumstance, projected a very special narrative for the world beyond its ken—a narrative that depicted a selfless movement touched by God and blessed by a religious fervor and determination to resist the enemy, the infidel, and ultimately achieve a “divine victory,” no matter the cost in life and treasure. The narrative contained no mention of Hezbollah’s dependence upon Iran and Syria for a steady flow of arms and financial resources.
For Hezbollah, the 2006 summertime war was more than a battle against a mortal enemy; it was a crucial battle in a broader, ongoing war, linking religious fundamentalism to Arab nationalism. Will victory be defined as an open door to modernity or to a new caliphate? That is a key question. The whole Arab world is often framed as a “politically traumatized region,” wrote Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland, caught in the “morbid interim between the dying of an exhausted political and social order and the birth of a still-unknown way of life.”2 Hezbollah saw itself as a resolute leader in shaping the Arab future.
Like Hamas and al-Qaeda, it appreciated the central importance of the communications revolution sweeping through the region. These three radical groups believe, according to Steve Fondacaro, an American military expert, that it is on the “information battlefield” that the historic struggle between Western modernity and Islamic fundamentalism will ultimately be resolved. “The new element of power that has emerged in the last thirty to forty years and has subsumed the rest is information,” he said. “A revolution happened without us knowing or paying attention. Perception truly now is reality, and our enemies know it.”3
Monday, March 12, 2007Elder of ZiyonA former World Bank official who is about to become the Palestinian finance minister has warned foreign donors that he has no idea where much of their money has been spent.
In the 14 months since Hamas won elections, Palestinian finances have descended into such chaos that there is now no way to confirm whether aid is going to its stated purpose, according to Salam Fayyad, 54, who is poised to start his second stint as treasury chief once the rival Hamas and Fatah factions finalise a "unity" government.
An estimated £362.5 million has flowed into Palestinian government coffers from abroad since the election that brought Hamas to power and ushered in a period of internal conflict that came close to all-out civil war.
The European Union alone provided £59.5 million last year and sent a far greater sum directly to hospitals, power generation projects and to families in need.
Now, Palestinian Authority spending is out of control, salaries are being paid to workers who never turn up, and nobody can track where the money is going, according to Mr Fayyad.
There was no way to be certain that aid was being used as intended, he admitted. "Please write this: no one can give donors that assurance. Why? Because the system is in a state of total disrepair."
...Ironically foreign aid to Palestinians increased (in 2006), either carried across the border into Gaza in cash-stuffed briefcases by Hamas officials, or through a special financial channel to the office of President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the rival Fatah faction with whom the West is prepared to work.
As a result, Mr Fayyad said, incoming funds have been widely dispersed with no central authority to monitor them. Some have gone to people who do not appear on the Palestinian budget ledger. "Where is the control?" asked Mr Fayyad. "It's gone. Where is all the transparency? It's gone."
He said his first objective would be to make the finance ministry the sole conduit for incoming aid, and to reinstate proper audits. That meant no more financial back channels or border smuggling, he said. "It's not my intention to manage the Palestinian budget system through the brown bag." The Palestinian Authority's unchecked proliferation of government jobs - growing by 11 per cent a year - is another threat to its existence, the World Bank said. Mr Fayyad acknowledged that the problem of thousands of absentee employees was "serious", but said it would take up to five years to bring wages into line with income.
He was reluctant to say how he would do that, perhaps understandably, given that unpaid security forces have a habit of barging into government offices with guns blazing, and that gunmen recently shot up the outside of his office.
Now some of Mr Abbas's presidential guard is assigned to his premises - a stark reminder of the connection between restoring security and bringing finances under control. "This will be extremely difficult," he said. "It's virtually impossible."
Monday, March 12, 2007Elder of Ziyon‘We will not betray promises we made to God to continue the path of Jihad and resistance until the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine,’ Hamas said in a statement, in a clear reference to Israel as well as to the occupied West Bank.Glad they cleared that up.
In its statement Hamas said it continued to be a ‘movement of resistance, seekers of martyrdom’ and that its ‘principles will never be changed’.
‘Zawahri’s recent statements were wrong ... Resistance is our strategy. How and when? This depends on the reality at the time and our corresponding view of things,’ Hamas said.
‘So be assured doctor Ayman, and all those who love Palestine like yourself, that Hamas is still the group you knew when it was founded and it will never abandon its path.’
The director general of palestinedialogue.net, one of the most famous electronic websites of the Hamas movement, who introduced himself as Dr. Othman, has accused Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Dr. Ayman Zawahiri, of being behind the elimination of the first Palestinian group of Al-Qaeda members and the dismissal of all Palestinians who used to work for Bin Laden's institutions everywhere.You see, Zawahiri? Hamas is trying to destroy Israel not only through terror but also through politics - just like Mohammed!
Othman said that whoever knows Zawahiri will know that this man was behind the planned dismissal of all Palestinians and the employment of Egyptians instead. Dr. Othman added that some of these newly-recruited Egyptians were from the Egyptian intelligence.
Othman added that Zawahiri used to deceive Bin Laden by telling him that he has some Al-Qaeda groups working in Palestine; then, when Palestinians contacted Bin Laden, he refused to hire them as Al-Qaeda members because he believed what Zawahiri told him about members of Al-Qaeda already working in Palestine, while this was never true. Zawahiri even had dealings with the Egyptian intelligence, such as handing some of the Palestinians in Egypt over to them to exchange for Zawahiri's friends, Othman added.
Othman also confirmed that Zawahiri has detested Palestinians, and Hamas, for over ten years, when he became the second man in Al-Qaeda. He even used to talk about his hatred to Hamas amongst his followers, Dr. Othman said. "He never tried to understand that the Hamas movement is a huge movement, and it intends to make changes, and it inspires its believers from the great Islam," he said.
Dr. Othman added: "If Zawahiri understands politics, he should play the game from all sides, not only the weapons game; we learned that from the great prophet Mohammad." He also urged Zawahiri to respect others when he speaks about them. Othman said to Zawahri, "We will respect you when you stop attacking Hamas, who are running a revolution in Palestine." He added that he will respect Zawahiri, "When he stops supporting the Jews and stops the incitement against Hamas; it would have been better for him to keep silent instead of throwing out these words about Hamas".
Othman ended by saying: "The people used to like Al-Qaeda because it launched a war on the US, who is supporting the occupation in Palestine, Afghanistan, and now Iraq, but this has gone after Al-Qaeda struck the innocent people in the hotels of Amman. These people, whom we still meet their family members and still pay condolences to them. What happens in Amman is a witness to the blindness of Zawahiri and his group's weapons, which don’t differentiate between people."
I am sorry to face the Muslim nation with the truth, and to tell it please accept our condolences for (the loss) of the HAMAS leadership. It has fallen in the swamp of capitulation. In the past, at the time of Al-Nakbah , Hasan al-Banna, whom we pray God would regard as a martyr, and Shaykh Amin al-Husayni, may God have mercy on their souls, gathered the fedayeen groups and marched toward Palestine. Now, at the time of the deal, the HAMAS leadership is handing over to the Jews most of Palestine.
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The HAMAS leadership has finally joined the train of Al Sadat for humiliation and capitulation. The HAMAS leadership has sold out Palestine, and earlier it had sold out referring to Shari'ah as the source of jurisdiction. It has sold all that to be allowed to maintain one-third of the government.
And what kind of government is this that does not have control over entry or exit, and movement between its two parts without a permit from Israel? It is a government whose prime minister is not allowed to enter his homeland and is not allowed to do so unless the Egyptians mediate between him and the Israeli defense minister. He would stay outside in the cold in front of the Rafah crossing until the Israeli minister gives approval.
For the sake of retaining one third of the seats in this ridiculous government, HAMAS leadership has abandoned the rule of Shar'iah. It has also ceded most of the Palestinian territories. For one-third of the seats of this ridiculous government, they abandoned the resistance movement and accepted the government of bargaining; they abandoned the movement of martyrdom operations and accepted the government of respect for international resolutions; they abandoned the heroic struggler movement and accepted the domesticated beggar government; they abandoned the movement of penetrating the enemy throngs with explosives and accepted the government of playing with words in the halls of palaces. For a third of the seats in t he government, they abandoned the rule of Shari'ah and bowed to the international legitimacy....
Sunday, March 11, 2007Elder of ZiyonAcademic fraudIlan Pappé, one of the revisionist scholars known in Israel as the "new historians," began his career in some of the same wartime archives as Benny Morris. But his own ideological journey has taken him to the far shore of Israel's political gulf and nearly complete isolation.Now, why is it newsworthy to profile a lone Israeli historian, who unsuccessfully ran for Knesset in an Arab Communist list and who calls for Israel to be dismantled? The only possible reason is that the author of the story agrees with him and tries to make him look like a romantic "lone wolf" telling the truth against his hundreds of colleagues who disagree.
The two disagree not on the facts about Israel's founding that they helped uncover but on what lessons they hold nearly six decades later. Morris maintains the rise of radical Islam is largely responsible for the region's strife; Pappe is virtually alone among Jewish Israelis in blaming the Zionist project to create a Jewish state in the Arab Middle East for the lack of peace.
"Zionism is far more dangerous to the safety of the Middle East than Islam," Pappe says.
The 52-year-old historian is a senior lecturer at the University of Haifa, which overlooks the thriving port where Pappe's parents arrived from Germany seven decades ago. Many of the relatives who stayed behind perished in the Holocaust. Pappe's family was apolitical. He served in the Golan Heights during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
What Pappe calls his "journey to the margins and beyond" began at Oxford University, where under the guidance of the renowned Arab historian Albert Hourani he wrote a doctoral thesis that became his first book, "Britain and the Arab-Israeli Conflict." He mixed with Palestinian intellectuals when the Palestine Liberation Organization was outlawed in Israel.
"My research debunked all of the lessons about Israel's creation that I had been raised on," Pappe says.
In his view, Israeli professors were not criticizing Israel's occupation of Palestinian land with the same stridency in academic conferences abroad as they did in the op-ed pages back home. He increasingly believed that land included all of Israel, not just the territories Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East War.
In 1996, Pappe joined Hadash, the mostly Arab anti-Zionist communist party and ran unsuccessfully for parliament. His work two years later organizing campus events to commemorate the 50th anniversary of "the catastrophe," as Palestinians call the 1948-49 war, placed him at odds with the university's politically powerful Land of Israel Studies department.
The university president began calling for his resignation.
"The debate that year prepared the way for the big battle -- the second intifada," Pappe says. "I looked around and I was alone."
Relatives stopped speaking to him over his rejection of the Jewish state in the dedication of his 2003 book, "A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples." He dedicated it to his sons: "may they live not only in a modern Palestine but in a peaceful one."
"When I was struggling against public denial of what occurred in 1948, I was still hopeful," Pappe says. "But the fact that denial has disappeared is even more worrying. It means that my outlook and theirs is unbridgeable. This is a basic problem of morality and ethics now."
Israel's war with the radical Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah last summer convinced Pappe of something he suspected for years: His views are irrelevant inside Israel.
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He has accepted a post at the University of Exeter in England and will move there later this year.
"It will be an attempt to see if one can live outside this place," Pappe says.
There is no historian in the world who is objective. I am not as interested in what happened as in how people see what's happened. ("An Interview of Ilan Pappé," Baudouin Loos, Le Soir [Bruxelles],Nov. 29, 1999)Beyond that, while the WaPo brings up Morris, they fail to even contextualize their disagreements to allow the reader some information on the matters. Morris has said about Pappé:
I admit that my ideology influences my historical writings...(Ibid)
Indeed the struggle is about ideology, not about facts. Who knows what facts are? We try to convince as many people as we can that our interpretation of the facts is the correct one, and we do it because of ideological reasons, not because we are truthseekers. (Ibid)
The debate between us is on one level between historians who believe they are purely objective reconstructers of the past, like [Benny] Morris, and those who claim that they are subjective human beings striving to tell their own version of the past, like myself. (“Benny Morris’s Lies About My Book,” Ilan Pappé, Response to Morris’ critique of Pappé’s book, “A History of Palestine” published in the New Republic, March 22, 2004, History News Network, April 5, 2004)
[Historical] Narratives... when written by historians involved deeply in the subject matter they write about, such as in the case of Israeli historians who write about the Palestine conflict, is motivated also... by a deep involvement and a wish to make a point. This point is called ideology or politics. (Ibid)
Yes, I use Palestinian sources for the Intifada: they seem to me to be more reliable, I admit. (Ibid)
..Unfortunately, much of what Pappé tries to sell his readers is complete fabrication...Shouldn't an article about Pappé mention some of the real, objective problems people have with him rather than frame it solely as being against his ideology (as reprehensible as it may be)? Especially egregious are Wilson's quoting of Pappe, "My research debunked all of the lessons about Israel's creation that I had been raised on," without a single indication that his research and conclusions are deeply flawed.
...In Pappé's account, there is no faulting the Palestinians for regularly assaulting the Zionist enterprise...The Palestinians are forever victims, the Zionists are forever "brutal colonizers"...
...The multiplicity of mistakes on each page is a product of both Pappé's historical methodology and his political proclivities...
...For those enamored with subjectivity and in thrall to historical relativism, a fact is not a fact and accuracy is unattainable. Why grope for the truth? Narrativity is all.
Saturday, March 10, 2007Elder of ZiyonArticle (1)How exactly are Gaza and the West Bank indivisible? Or is this a backhanded way of saying that it includes all of Israel?
The State of Palestine is a sovereign, independent republic. Its territory is an indivisible unit based upon its borders on the eve of June 4, 1967, without prejudice to the rights guaranteed by the international resolutions relative to Palestine. All residents of this territory shall be subject to Palestinian law exclusively.
Article (3)This is a prime example of that famous PalArab sense of humor.
Palestine is a peace loving state that condemns terror, occupation and aggression. It calls for the resolution of international and regional problems by peaceful means. It abides by the Charter of the United Nations.
Article (4)Notice it doesn't say "East Jerusalem" or "The Old City." Hmmmm.
Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Palestine and seat of its public authorities.
Article (5)All three of these sentences contradict each other. If Islam is the official religion, it is impossible for other religions to be equally respected. If only monotheistic religions are respected, then there are no equal rights for Hindus or Buddhists. So, which is it? Just read on:
Arabic and Islam are the official Palestinian language and religion. Christianity and all other monotheistic religions shall be equally revered and respected. The Constitution guarantees equality in rights and duties to all citizens irrespective of their religious belief.
Article (7)Meaning that Islamic law is the basis for all law, and as long as other religious laws do not contradict Shari'a they will be permitted to practice. Sounds very equal to me!
The principles of Islamic Shari’a are a major source for legislation. Civil and religious matters of the followers of monotheistic religions shall be organized in accordance with their religious teachings and denominations within the framework of law, while preserving the unity and independence of the Palestinian people.
Article (12)The three sentences I highlighted also contradict each other. Can a Palestinian relinquish his nationality or not?
Palestinian nationality shall be regulated by law, without prejudice to the rights of those who legally acquired it prior to May 10, 1948 or the rights of the Palestinians residing in Palestine prior to this date, and who were forced into exile or departed there from and denied return thereto. This right passes on from fathers or mothers to their progenitor. It neither disappears nor elapses unless voluntarily relinquished. A Palestinian cannot be deprived of his nationality. The acquisition and relinquishment of Palestinian nationality shall be regulated by law. The rights and duties of citizens with multiple nationalities shall be governed by law.
Article (13)Every Arab nation voted against Resolution 194 in 1948.
Palestinians who left Palestine as a result of the 1948 war, and who were denied return thereto shall have the right to return to the Palestinian state and bear its nationality. It is a permanent, inalienable, and irrevocable right.
The state of Palestine shall strive to apply the legitimate right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes, and to obtain compensation, through negotiations, political, and legal channels in accordance with the 1948 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 and the principles of international law.
Article (14)Unless, of course, they are Jewish antiquities.
Natural resources in Palestine are the property of the Palestinian people who will exercise sovereignty over them. The state shall be obligated to preserve natural resources and legally regulate their optimal exploitation while safeguarding Palestinian religious and cultural heritage and environmental needs. The protection and maintenance of antiquities and historical sites is an official and social responsibility. It is prohibited to tamper with or destroy them, and whoever violates, destroys, or illegally sells them shall be punishable by law.
Saturday, March 10, 2007Elder of ZiyonA senior Hamas militant was killed early Sunday in a shootout with the rival Fatah group in the Gaza Strip, officials from both Palestinian factions said.Our count of Palestinian Arabs violently killed this year is now at 133. (I won't keep the count since Summer Rains, as that number is always going to be 205 more than this year's count.) And unless there is a huge event this week, this post is where I'll keep the death count updated.
It was the first fatality in such factional fighting since leaders of the two sides reached a Saudi-sponsored agreement to form a national unity government a month ago.
Each side blamed the other for starting the firefight in the town of Beit Hanun in the northern part of the coastal strip. Another Hamas gunman and at least two Fatah militants were also wounded in the fighting.
The man killed in the shootout was identified as Mohammad al-Kafarna, a member of the Hamas-led government's Executive Force. Hamas accused Fatah of ambushing his car.
Fatah spokesman Abdel-Halim Awad accused gunmen of the ruling Islamist Hamas movement of ambushing members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is linked to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.
He said Hamas fighters were attacking a Fatah office in Beit Hanun with rocket-propelled grenades.
Residents said gunfire and explosions were echoing across the town as the Fatah office and a separate Fatah security complex came under mortar fire.
...[Thee was] fresh factional violence in the Palestinian territories Saturday, when gunmen stopped a car carrying a Hamas cabinet minister and opened fire on the vehicle, officials said.
The militants opened fire, hitting the vehicle four times, security officials said. Hamas forces quickly rushed to the scene, and an exchange of fire ensued. The three gunmen then fled, Hamas officials said.
Hamas accused Palestinian security officials with ties to Fatah of being behind the attack. Security officials said they were aware of the incident but did not know who was responsible.
Earlier Saturday, Palestinian militants opened fire at Palestinian security headquarters in Jenin, demanding that they receive long-overdue salaries promised by the government, witnesses said.
The gunfire forced all government offices in this West Bank city to close.
About 20 members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades gathered outside the security building, periodically firing rounds. There were no reports of injuries, and security officers inside the building did not fire back, the witnesses said.
After winning elections in 2005, Abbas promised police jobs to hundreds of militants in order to bring the violent groups under control. The militants participating in Saturday's protest said they were paid several times, but stopped receiving salaries last year.
After about an hour, the militants retreated, saying they had received assurances that their demands would be met.
Zakariye Zubeydi, the local Al Aqsa leader, said he ordered his men to halt their fire after the government agreed to resume payments to families of men killed in violence with Israel, and to open negotiations on paying the militants their back salaries.
"We solved the problem. We stopped shooting," he said.
The investigators affirmed that the woman confessed to the crime. The defendant said "I gave birth to my baby girl in my father's house and then closed the baby's mouth with my hand so that the baby wouldn't scream, this is what caused the death." She affirmed that she illegally became pregnant. She also admitted that she handed the dead body to the illegal father who was captured while trying to bury the corpse.135.
In a separate incident, detectives said they have found the dead body of a baby girl on a street in Rafah. After investigations, they could identify the mother from the hospital where the baby was delivered. The mother admitted that she left her baby in the street out of fear of a scandal because the pregnancy was a result of adultery.
Friday, March 09, 2007Elder of Ziyonjimmy carterIS ISRAEL an apartheid state? Apparently Nelson Mandela thinks so. In a recent letter to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Mandela lays out the case against Israel with unusual candour. Mandela’s words are now being quoted all over the world. Last month, former US president Jimmy Carter cited the letter in a speech at Brandeis University. And who’s going to argue with Madiba?Read the whole thing.
Unfortunately for Israel’s critics, the letter is a hoax. It is the creation of a man named Arjan El Fassed, who runs an anti-Israel website called The Electronic Intifada. El-Fassad has admitted that he made the whole thing up, but the Mandela letter has now entered the anti-Israel canon alongside countless other fictions. Yet, much like the Israel-apartheid comparison itself, it is completely spurious.
Buy EoZ's books!
PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
