Israeli flower cells shaped like Star of David

This is too cool! Israeli 'survivor' flower boasts cells in shape of Star of David
"We have never before seen a structure like this in the cell walls of plants," says Dr. Rina Kamenetsky. "This is a very rare structure - maybe even unique."		It's known as the ultimate survivor. It grows wild in Israel, thriving in the harsh dry conditions that would kill many other plants. And what do the cells of this hardy survivor - a native Israeli Persian buttercup - look like under a microscope? A Star of David. "It really is symbolic," says Dr. Rina Kamenetsky, a researcher at Israel's Volcani Institute, who made the surprising discovery while trying to understand the survival mechanisms of this resilient bulb, known in Hebrew as nurit, and in Latin as Ranunculus asiaticus. The flower from the Holy Land is also known in botanical circles as a type of 'resurrection plant' which, explains Kamenetsky, means that it can live without water, and is 'resurrected' when water becomes available. Kamenetsky brought samples of the native Israeli type of this Mediterranean species to study during a sabbatical leave at the University of Guelph in Canada last year. She and her Canadian colleagues discovered that the storage roots of this particular Persian buttercup have a special mechanism for resisting drought and heat that is found in no other plant to date - a finding they published recently in the journal New Phytologist. But Kamenetsky also found an additional surprise: under a microscope the cells of the root assume the form of interlocking Stars of David. "When my Canadian colleague Professor Larry Peterson saw it, he called me over right away and said: 'Look, Rina: here's something especially for you.' I was truly amazed," she told ISRAEL21c. It was the first time that Kamenetsky, a leading floriculturist, had seen a Star of David pattern on the cells of any plant. It turns out that the cell walls of the storage roots of this particular plant serve as a shield. In winter, when the first rain comes, the cell walls block the sudden influx of water which could cause the cells to burst. At the same time, they protect the cells from dehydration by absorbing water. The cell walls that serve as a year-round shield also happen to look like a shield - the shield of David. "We have never before seen a structure like this in the cell walls of plants," she says. "This is a very rare structure - maybe even unique."

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US says: 'Half measures insufficient!' Ooops...they meant Syria, not Abbas.

Tough talk against a murderous terror regime, that, um, Europe doesn't seem to like either.

The United States considered "half measures" unsatisfactory, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in response to the redeployment of Syrian forces in Lebanon.

"This does not add up to Syria leaving Lebanon. Nobody has said all troops are leaving Lebanon," a State Department official said.

"We will continue to hold their feet to the fire, not accept half-measures and call a spade a spade - that is, when they make these announcements about a withdrawal that is neither complete or immediate, we will call it for what it is,” the official said.

With all that bravado, I wonder when the White House will call Abbas a Holocaust-denier?

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Terror attack at Judaism's 2nd holiest site

Another day, another terror attack that is considered "acceptable" and not worth risking the fictional peace process over. We're back to 1994, with the exception of an American president who is committed to giving the terrorists their own country. And, really, who cares about Hevron/Hebron? Only "settlers" and other Jews, not the enlightened secular Zionists who are now demonizing them worse than the terrorists.

An Arab terrorist injured four people this morning, one seriously, in a shooting attack at Hevron's Tomb of the Biblical Patriarchs.

Shortly before 9:00am, an Arab terrorist sprayed gunfire at Israelis standing at the entrance to the Machpela Cave, the tomb of the Biblical Patriarchs in Hevron. Four people were injured including a Border Guard soldier who sustained serious wounds.

The soldier and a lightly injured comrade were transported to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem's Ein Karem neighborhood. Two other lightly wounded security personnel were treated at the scene.

IDF responds to Hevron Arab attack. Photo: Hevron

The terrorist emerged from the crowded Hevron kasba market to perpetrate the attempted murder. Arab residents of Hevron have been put under strict curfew as security forces sweep the area for the attacker and possible accomplices. Military forces are still operating in the city at this time.

A policeman and former border guard patrolling the site responded by shooting at the attacker, forcing the possibly wounded terrorist to flee the scene. Hearing cries of "wounded," army medic and local resident, Yisrael Bromsohn, immediately ran to the site of the attack. Bromsohn administered emergency first aid to the critically wounded victim until additional medical personnel arrived.

Ariel Levy, who was at the tomb entrance during the attack, said, "I was with another person and we were just going into [the building] when we heard the automatic gunfire a few yards away. We quickly hit the ground." Levy said that all of the injured were border guards on duty at the site.

Medics treat today's victims in Hevron. Photo: Hevron

According to Jewish tradition, the Machpela Cave is the burial site of four biblical couples: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah, and Adam and Eve.

In addition to the morning attack at the Machpela Cave, security forces in Hevron arrested an Arab possessing a letter that declared his intention to carry out a suicide bombing. The would-be terrorist was captured after security forces received intelligence warnings of a suicide bomber in the Kiryat Arba area.

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Hypocrisy of releasing prisoners while PA executes "collaborators"

I was wondering why nobody seems to care about "collaborators" who are planned to be executed by the peace-loving PA this month.

In an urgent plea to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Minister-without Portfolio Natan Sharansky said the government must demand that the Palestinian Authority immediately stop the execution of those alleged to have collaborated with Israel.

'Israel must immediately demand of the PA that it stop the planned execution of suspected collaborators,' he wrote. 'It is unacceptable that the PA demands the release of terrorists from our jails, and we respond affirmatively because of the hope for an opening to peace, while at the very same time the PA is about to commit state executions of people accused of helping Israel thwart terror.'

He appealed to Sharon following a report that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is expected to approve the execution of collaborators. According to this report, the director of the PA Military Court advised that between five and 15 Palestinians are expected to be executed. The mufti of Jerusalem has confirmed this report.

'It is impossible to build a peace process based on blood. Such a process can only be based on the goodwill of both sides.

The cold-blooded execution of those individuals accused of cooperating to deflect terror directly contradicts the gestures demanded of Israel, tramples human rights, and with it any spark of hope for a better future in the Middle East,' Sharansky wrote.

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AP compares Israeli and Palestinian child deaths; Sbarro's victim's father responds

AP seeks moral equivalence, as usual. Here is a response by Arnold Roth...read the whole thing.

It upsets me very much to see the agonizing story of child murders largely reduced to an AP statistical analysis. Counting bodies - whether it's factually correct or incorrect - ignores the central reality of terrorism. The terrorists want as many bodies as possible, and they don't make any effort to hide it. Counter-terrorism warfare causes innocents to lose their lives. This is awful - but it's not the same as the cold-blooded, deliberate viciousness that motivates people like the murderers of my daughter.

From personal experience, I have a better-than-average sense for how complex the journalism profession is. Still, you'll understand why I am so infuriated when an article which purports to compare the deaths of Israeli children with the deaths of Palestinian Arab children ignores the fundamental issue at the heart of the carnage: the Palestinians have a huge number of people interested in seeing more and more dead Israeli children.

If Israel failed to take the pro-active and energetic steps it does, many, many more Israeli children's lives would end in murder. The statistics in your article would then look very different. Israeli lives are saved every single day because of the work of the Israeli security forces. This is a reality of the asynchronous war of the past four years and for anyone aware of the facts, irrespective of political viewpoints, there's no room for doubt on the issue. The post-Arafat Palestinian political leadership acknowledges it. But instead of doing what moral and responsible people would - that is, forcefully preventing terror -they claim they prefer to 'discuss' and 'persuade' and not take the risk of arousing internal conflict within their own ranks. This is why it now falls to the Israeli security forces to police the Palestinians, with all that that entails.

There should have been some place found for this fundamental difference of standpoint in the article. Since it wasn't, the message is misleading and in my opinion false: poor Israeli families weaping over their misery; poor Palestinian families weaping over their misery; how tragic - but what can civilized people (meaning we readers of American newspapers that buy their stories from AP's wire service) possibly do? The cycle of violence continues.

But there is no cycle of violence in reality - not here. You know yourself, from living in the thick of things in Jerusalem, that if civilized people don't do everything in our power to stop the terrorists, they will spread their terror wider and wider. Understanding the flow of events is not about statistics - it's about terror. Almost every important thing in the way civilized society tries to regulate and manage itself today is about terror. Yet the word 'terror' did not appear even once in the article.

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Time interviews Arafat the Second

What a surprise. The "peaceful" Abbas saying that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are also peaceful, that Israel is responsible for all Israelis killed in terror attacks.

This sickening, disgusting, lying piece of crap is the person that the US and Israel is relying on for "peace."

TIME: Now that you've been elected, your progress depends on your cease-fire with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the Islamist groups opposing peace. How secure is it ?

ABBAS: I concluded a truce with Hamas when I was Prime Minister. After I became head of the Palestinian Authority, I conducted talks with them, and they accepted without any pressure on them. It is a democracy. We have to deal with them accordingly.

TIME: But when they launch suicide-bomb attacks like the latest one in Tel Aviv?

ABBAS: They said they are not responsible and they'll stick to the cease-fire. All of [the Islamist factions]. Even those that are in Damascus.

TIME: Who was responsible, then, for the Tel Aviv attack?

ABBAS: It was individuals. We arrested five. If you ask me who is responsible, the Israelis are responsible. The bombers came from the suburb of Tulkarem to Tel Aviv, crossing the wall. So who is responsible? The wall and the Israelis.

TIME: Hamas won seats in municipal elections in January. Now the P.L.O. has an opposition?

ABBAS: This is proof that they are going to be a political party, which is good.

TIME: Israelis and Americans are shocked to think Hamas could be in your parliament.

ABBAS: Why not? They should be in the parliament. They will share responsibility. Israel has more than 33 political parties from right to left and in between.

After all, Halas and Islamic Jihad share the same goals as the PA, Fatah, and Hezbollah - why shouldn't they be in the parliament?

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The anti-Jewish lie that refuses to die: The history of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"

by Steve Boggan

WHEN HADASSA BEN-ITTO told her colleagues she was giving up her career as one of Israel’s most senior judges to expose the deadliest forgery of the 20th century, they thought she was crazy. The forgery — perhaps more accurately a plagiarism — was The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and it had been used to justify the murders of millions of Jews in Russia and Nazi Germany. But, they said, it was nonsense. It was a fairy story. Surely, no one believed this rubbish any more . . . did they?

That was in 1991. Ben-Itto subsequently embarked, at the age of 64, on an odyssey that took her thousands of miles from home and more than 100 years back in time to pre-revolutionary Russia and a Europe in anti-Semitic ferment. And, by the time she had completed her epic journey, no one thought she was crazy any more.

Next week Ben-Itto publishes the findings of her work in the UK as The Lie That Wouldn’t Die: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It is a forensic deconstruction of a vicious piece of propaganda that paved the way for the Holocaust and which continues to poison minds against worldwide Jewry to this day. The book combines meticulous research with a previously forgotten — but immensely important — courtroom drama to trace the history of the lie to the hand that penned it.

But first, what are The Protocols of the Elders of Zion? They first appeared in 1905 as an appendix to The Great and the Small by the Russian writer Sergei Nilus. Purporting to be the minutes of a great meeting of Jewish leaders, they chronicle the devious methods by which Jews will cause global economic and political collapse to facilitate their complete domination of the world.

The reasoning behind the Protocols was first used as a means of justifying the massacres — or pogroms — that left thousands of Jews dead in Russia, the message being: “If we don’t kill them, they will kill us.” It was a similar message to that used by Hitler 30 years later.

Divided into 24 tracts on such subjects as Ruthless Suppression, Despotism and Modern Progress and Assault on Religion, its use of language is chillingly matter-of-fact. For example, in Instilling Obedience, Protocol XXIII reads: “Subjects . . . give blind obedience only to the strong hand which is absolutely independent of them, for in it they feel the sword of defence and support against social scourges . . .

“What do they want with an angelic spirit in a king? What they have to see in him is the personification of force and power.”

And so on.

Like many Jews, Ben-Itto had heard of the Protocols but had neither read them nor taken them seriously. Her parents, David, a labourer, and Deborah, fled to Palestine before the war and despaired as news came of the Holocaust in their homeland. When it was over, she had lost two grandparents, six aunts, an uncle and several cousins to the Nazis.

After graduating in law, she was admitted to the Israeli Bar in 1955 and practised for five years before being appointed a judge. In the intervening years she enjoyed a remarkable career, serving twice as a member of Israel’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly and holding the temporary rank of ambassador. By the time she took early retirement to investigate the Protocols, she was an Acting Justice of the Supreme Court.

She had had five encounters with the Protocols — once when she was warned about them by a delegate at the UN in 1965; twice when she attended trials tackling racism in Paris in 1972 and Stockholm in 1989; in 1985 when a Filipino judge spoke of them as if they were a given truth; and in a 1988 newspaper article — before she actually sat down to read them.

“As I read on,” she writes, “phrases and paragraphs leapt to the eye, totally devoid of reason, absolutely opposed to any Jewish tradition and teaching.” It was time, she decided, to do something about it.

We meet at the Hilton London Metropole. Ben-Itto, wearing a smart green jacket, is now 78 but she is a bundle of energy who looks ten years younger. She has flown in from Tel Aviv as she wants The Times to carry the first news of her book in the UK (it has already been published in Israel, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, Romania, Russia and Bulgaria) because this newspaper had a special role in first exposing the Protocols as a fake in 1921.

“I was horrified when I read them — particularly when I found out they were still being published around the world as if they were true,” she says.

“Everyone had heard of them, but no one was taking them seriously. I decided to have a series of ten dinner parties for ten or so people, senior lawyers, academics, politicians and journalists, at which I would ask the guests about the Protocols. Everyone had heard of them but not one had read them.

“When I told my guests what they said and what I had found out about their history, they were appalled. I then thought that if so many influential Jews were living in ignorance, it was time for me to unmask the Protocols for what they were. The Jewish people have a history of not standing up when they are being attacked — and we have seen the results of that. I believe in standing up at the first sign of danger.” Armed only with a laptop and helped by a Russian researcher, Ben-Itto set off on her voyage of discovery like a modern-day Miss Marple.

Along the way, she learnt that the Protocols had long ago been exposed as a myth in The Times and in several books. But these books had generally been written by academics for academics and had not enjoyed a wide circulation. She also learnt of a landmark court case in Berne, Switzerland, in 1934 when the Jewish community hired a young and inexperienced lawyer to fight an action against a group of fascists which was distributing the Protocols.

That lawyer, Georges Brunschvig, was long since dead, but Ben-Itto discovered that his wife, Odette, was still alive. She began searching for her without success, until one day, while delivering a lecture to a women’s conference in Switzerland, she asked a delegate if she had heard of Odette Brunschvig. “Yes,” said the delegate. “She’s over there.”

“When I approached Odette and told her what I was doing, she burst into tears,” Ben-Itto recalls. “It was as if Georges’s memory and the work he did had passed into history but was being re-ignited. She invited me home and we became great friends.”

The meeting resulted in the judge being given access to the Berne case records, bundled up and gathering dust for 70 years. She also managed to interview Brunschvig’s law partner twice before he died. Those discoveries, coupled with what had already been written about the Protocols enabled her to piece together their remarkable and sinister history.

What she has established is this: the Protocols were written on the instructions of Piotr Ivanovich Rachkovskii, a Russian secret service agent, in Paris around 1895 as a means of reinforcing the anti-Jewish policies of the Romanov dynasty. They gained wide circulation after the publication of Nilus’s book in 1905 and were accepted as the truth by much of the European intelligentsia. Then, in 1921, the distinguished Times correspondent Philip Graves was tipped off by a Russian exile in Istanbul, known as Mr X, that the Protocols were based on a banned — and later burnt — book by the French satirist Maurice Joly (a gentile) entitled Dialogues in Hell.

Joly had meant well. Dialogues in Hell comprised an imaginary conversation between Niccolo Machiavelli, the Italian exponent of ruthless political cunning, and Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, the French advocate of enlightened government. It was intended as a criticism of the harsh rule of Napoleon III and it earned Joly a jail sentence.

Graves was given a rare copy of the book and found that large passages of the Protocols had been lifted wholesale from Joly’s Dialogues — the Protocols, therefore, could not possibly have come from a meeting of Jewish elders. Furthermore, the proponents of the Protocols argue that that meeting was the First Conference on Zionism, held in Basel in 1897. But Joly wrote the Dialogues in 1864. “The Berne lawyers won their case but the Protocols were still widely used by Hitler to advocate the extermination of the Jews,” Ben-Itto says.

“I would argue that the Berne case was one of the most important of the 20th century, but it was forgotten in the events that followed.

“The real tragedy is that despite Georges Brunschvig’s great victory, the Protocols are still being published in new editions all round the world.

“You can even buy them on Amazon. They represent the most dangerous libel on an entire race and give support to the belief in what is more widely known as the Jewish Conspiracy — that the Jews are responsible for everything.

“For 9/11, for Iraq, for the spread of Aids, for all political unrest. They are so clever, you see, because any kind of social, economic or political problem fits in with the grand plan for creating the kind of disorder necessary for world domination.

“The Protocols have now left me with a moral dilemma. I am against banning and burning books — that is the kind of behaviour we associate with the Nazis. But when something has been proven to be a fake and when it is specifically designed to incite racial hatred, then I think there is a case for banning it. That is now impossible with the rise of the internet, so the best I can do is expose it as widely as possible for what it is.”

In Eastern European countries, where her book has been published, it has been welcomed and has stimulated sensible debate where before there was only rumour and ignorance. Yet the Protocols are still being used in other countries, primarily Arab states, to foment anti-Semitism.

For example, as recently as February 20, Ikrima Sabri, Mufti of Jerusalem, appeared on Al-Majd satellite TV to comment on the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, and said: “Anyone who studies The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and specifically the Talmud will discover that one of the goals of these Protocols is to cause confusion in the world and to undermine security throughout the world.”

Ben-Itto is now free to enjoy her retirement, yet the Protocols still dog her every footstep. She wants to promote her book as widely as possible (and, in most countries where it has been published she donates the royalties to causes that fight anti-Semitism). It will be published in Spain next and then Latin America, to be followed by a 100-minute documentary, which should be aired in the UK before the end of the year.

“There is no room for complacency,” she argues. “When I took this on, I had no idea what a huge undertaking it would be. I have been fortunate to have enjoyed a long and successful career but to see my book out there exposing this lie is very satisfying. I like to think of it as my legacy to the Jewish people and to the all victims who died because of the hatred incited by the Protocols.”

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This week's good news

Israeli device pumps up the odds of conceiving

Israeli breakthrough enables cell phone recording

Israeli method lets you sign on the dotted line - securely

Mrs. World pageant won by Israeli

New England Patriots owner re-dedicates (American) football stadium in Israel

Revolutionary Playstation 3 "Cell" chip developed in Israel

Israeli Scientists Develop "Micro Missile" to Combat Cancer

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Defeating Anti-Israeli and Anti-Semitic Activity on Campus at Rutgers University

Read the whole thing.

Excerpt:

Given the large attendance, attention, and support of the greater pro-Israeli community, the Israel Inspires campaign was successful from two major standpoints. First, anti-Semitic incidents at Rutgers have virtually disappeared since the advent of the campaign. Second, Israel Inspires was true to its name and inspired many students at Rutgers to become involved in campus activism. The Rutgers Students United for Israel community now boasts numerous pro- Israeli activities, including the debut of the Rutgers Student Journal of Israel Affairs.

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Brown U. rejects Israel divestment proposal

(Brown U.) President Ruth Simmons accepted a recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investing and rejected the proposal for divestment from Israel set forth by Anti-Racist Action and promoted by a coalition of groups at a protest Feb. 11.

The ACCRI recommended that Simmons reject ARA's proposal for divestment from Israel, all Israeli corporations and any U.S. corporations doing business with Israel, according to a copy of the ACCRI's report provided to The Herald by Marisa Quinn, assistant to the president.

On Feb. 7, ARA, the Democratic Solidarity Committee and Brown Alumni for Divestment submitted their demands for the University to divest from Israel and all corporations doing business with Israel.

In a document claiming "Israel = White Supremacy," the groups wrote that "any Zionist - that is anyone equating Jewish identity and heritage with defense of the state and ruling class of Israel - is an accomplice of white supremacy and empire." The document also said the groups would "not relent until the undemocratic institutions on this campus are shaken; we will not stop until our tuition is no longer used to support injustice here and overseas in Palestine."

Once again the Loony Left shows its hypocrisy. What is amazing is that this ridiculous proposal was taken seriously.

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What happened to the "cycle of violence"?

Tel Aviv bombing.
Car bomb near Joseph's Tomb.
Huge car bomb attack thwarted.

Israel doesn't respond. Palestinians keep attacking.

But don't hold your breath waiting for the media to stop using the even-handed phrase "cycle of violence."

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Palestinians regard Sharon's disengagement as a victory for the Intifada

Via Daily Alert:

Palestinian Poll: Disengagement a Victory for the Intifada - Menahem Rahat (Maariv-Hebrew, 2Mar05)
Prior to the announcement of the disengagement plan, 75% of the Palestinian public believed that the intifada had failed, but a few months after the planned withdrawal was announced, 74% agreed that the plan is 'a victory for the armed struggle.'
The initial poll results appeared in October 2003 in the official PA daily al-Hayat al-Jadida, while the more recent poll was conducted in September 2004 by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research directed by Khalil Shikaki.
According to Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch, the end of 2003 was a low point for the Palestinians. They had fought against Israel for three years, thousands of Palestinians were killed, and they had not gained a single concrete achievement.
Then came the disengagement announcement which caused a revolution: the feelings of despair turned into support for terror, he said.

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Israeli rapper Subliminal is a right-wing Zionist

I may dislike rap and hip-hop, but I like this guy!

Israeli Rapper Takes U.S.

Subliminal kicks off tour, kicks up controversy

Israeli rapper Subliminal makes his U.S. debut tonight in Los Angeles, but his presence has already been felt around the world. Known as a right-wing Zionist, the hip-hop star -- whose latest album went gold on its first day in stores and who will team with Wyclef Jean, Ashanti and Miri Ben-Ari for his next one -- has incited demonstrations from France to Canada.

Subliminal, born Kobi Shimoni, is not afraid of political confrontation, and he stands by admittedly militant songs like "Biladi" (Arabic for "My Land"). "When we talk politics with Arabs in Israel, they say, 'My grandfather used to live in Tel Aviv, and now it's owned by Jewish people -- we want to come back,'" he says. "I respond, 'My parents came from Iran and Tunisia, but nobody is going to give our property back to us. It's all been confiscated . . . We have this little sandbox we call Israel. We give our hearts and lives to make it a proud country. Every one serves in the Israeli Defense Force in order for Israel to survive. You have half of the globe. What the fuck do you want from us? Go live in Saudi Arabia.'"

A number of Subliminal's lyrics are in Arabic -- not only making his words more accessible to communities across the globe, but also reflecting his Middle Eastern heritage. His being the son of Jewish refugees is at the core of his hard-line politics. "My mother is from Mashad, Iran, where every Jewish girl was married by the age of seven, because if a Muslim asked for the girl's hand and you said no, they would kill you," he says. "In Tunisia, my father grew up with his family locking all the doors and windows whenever performing a Jewish ceremony -- out of fear of attacks." Both parents, he says, "ran for their lives" to Israel, where they spent decades recovering from the persecution they had faced.

During a concert in France last year, members of the Arab community turned out in droves, protesting Subliminal's performance and attempting to shut it down. Sniper, a leading rapper in France was quoted as condemning Subliminal's appearance -- leading a local radio station to invite Subliminal and Sniper for a live rap battle. Sniper didn't show, so Subliminal used the airtime to invite the French rapper to visit Tel Aviv to "see what it is that you hate so much about Israel."

After booking a show in Canada, one club owner got so much flak that he cancelled the performance, even after all the advertising and tickets had already gone out. Following negotiations with Subliminal's management, the show was finally reinstated.

Subliminal blames the controversy on bad press -- not so much about him, but his people. "The international media makes us look like blood-eating, Arab kid-killing monsters," he says. "You want to know what's real? Listen to my lyrics, and you can find out."

Those lyrics have actually earned him accolades from a number of Arab hip-hop artists, some of whom have even asked to work with him. "They say they are Muslims," Subliminal recounts, "and that they understand the message and accept it. They also give us props and respect, because they thought Jews were guys in black costumes, doing secret ceremonies in the Temple way up there [laughs]. Then they see a guy who looks just like them, who eats the same humus and couscous and kouba, and speaks Arabic just like them."

How American audiences respond to Subliminal remains to be seen, but he hopes his tour will similarly break down stereotypes and perceived barriers between Arabs and Jews. "If I were to meet another Arab guy -- it doesn't matter from Tunisia or the Gaza Strip -- and we were to meet each other in L.A., we would see that we look similar. We're not black, Hispanic, Japanese or Chinese, and we're not white like Europeans. We're the sand guys from the Middle East."

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The Peculiar Institution: Understanding Why Palestinian Terror Is Different

Read the whole thing. Its conclusion:

In the culminating cant phrase of all, terrorism became formalized as "the expression of the desperation of the Palestinian people," a book of lamentations written in mangled corpses of the Palestinians' own children -- almost a ritual deserving of respect, like the Jewish Kaddish or the Catholic mass for the dead. It was sacred, and therefore above criticism. Why do they encourage their children to explode bombs against their chests? Because of their desperation.

Other people have despaired, and not one is recorded which decided to express its despair in this particular way: the Armenians persecuted by the Turks, the Jews persecuted by the Cossacks, the Irish persecuted by the English, and down the list, and not a one of them ever thought about immolating their own offspring on such a senseless and bitter pyre. And it is supposed to mean nothing to us that the Palestinians and the Arabs find such a sacrifice ennobling to the family that urges it?

The Palestinian terrorists, in short, are past masters at breaking eggs. But, unlike the Algerian revolutionaries, they appear to have forgotten that the whole point of breaking eggs was to make an omelet. They have become obsessed with breaking eggs only for the pleasure they seem to get from smashing delicate things.

Those who support the endless smashing of bodies for the mere sake of smashing bodies are not standing on the right side of history. They are in league with the forces of anti-civilization. They are cheering on those who no longer remember how to create and construct, and indeed who no longer see any purpose in creating or constructing.

This is why those who have genuine sympathy with the Palestinian people must stop extending sympathy for those who continue to pursue a totally unrealistic fantasy, especially now that a genuine alternative is being offered to them by a leader that they have chosen themselves. But Mahmoud Abbas can only be successful in bringing an end to Palestinian terrorism if the opinion of the rest of the world stands solidly behind him in his struggle to control the virus of terrorism that has plagued the Palestinian people just as much -- if not more -- than it has plagued the Israelis. That is why those who continue to apologize or palliate Palestinian terror are betraying the very people that they are claiming to support. It is time, in short, to stop the cant in defense of terrorism, no matter from what source it may come.

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PA media praises Tel-Aviv bomber

The Western media got it wrong. Again.

One of the most striking – and effective – strategies of the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat was its policy of presenting one message in English to the mainstream media while delivering a separate, often contradictory, message to the Palestinian people in Arabic.

In the aftermath of Friday night's terror attack on a beachfront Tel Aviv night club – the first since the tenure of Mahmoud Abbas began – it is clear that the Palestinian media under Abbas's control is continuing Arafat's standard policies.

While the foreign media accept at face value the PA's official condemnation of Friday's suicide bombing, the PA-controlled media are glorifying the bomber as a shahid (martyr who died for Allah) – the highest level of human achievement for a Muslim. By granting shahid status to the murderer, the PA media are portraying bombing as a positive religious act.

Within this context the official condemnations need to be understood not as deploring the act, but its consequences – damaging the Palestinian cause.

Sunday's front-page coverage of the story in the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda features a giant color photo of the terrorist at the top of the page, with the caption: "The executor of the Tel Aviv operation, the shahid Abdullah Badran." Another photograph shows his mother holding a picture of her son, and is captioned: "The mother of the Shahid."

The daily newspaper Al-Ayyam refers to "the family of the Shahid."

Al-Quds refers to "the family of the shahid Abdullah," and to the arrest of "the shahid's two brothers" and to a "mourning tent in memory of the shahid."

An earlier story in Al-Ayyam refers to the bomber as Istish-hadi – a shahid who actively sought death for Allah and succeeded. To get a sense of the status the Palestinian media is granting Friday's terrorist by defining him as a shahid, here are the rewards awaiting the shahid, as described earlier by a Palestinian religious leader on Palestinian TV:

"When the Shahid meets his Maker, all his sins are forgiven from the first gush of blood, and he is exempted from the torments of the grave. He sees his place in Paradise. He is shielded from the Great Shock and marries 72 Dark-Eyed [Maidens]. He is a heavenly advocate for 70 members of his family. On his head is placed a crown of honor, one stone of which is worth more than all there is in this world." (Dr. Isma'il al-Raduan, PATV, August 17, 2001)

Accordingly, the use of the terms "shahid" and "Istish-hadi" for the terrorist leaves no question about the message the Palestinian media is sending its people about this terror attack: This murder and death for Allah, like those in recent years, is the supreme positive act for a Muslim.

Given this ultimate veneration of the act of murder, condemnations of the suicide attack within the Palestinian-controlled media have focused on the "poor timing" and the fact that the attack was a violation of the agreement between Abbas and Hamas to stop killing civilians during the cease-fire. The killings were detrimental to PA policy – nothing more. As in the Arafat years, the act itself was not portrayed as immoral or wrong.

On Monday, Hassan Asfour, a member of the PA parliament, put it this way on Palestinian TV: "This is the first action that no one is happy about. Everyone felt that the timing is not [right] and there is absolutely no need for it... It is not because the resistance against the occupation is a mistake, but because the nature, location and timing of the action are a mistake."

In his condemnation too, Abbas was careful not to criticize the action itself but the damage to the Palestinians:

"President Mahmoud Abbas described the operation... as a condemned sabotage attack, blaming a third party for the execution in order to jeopardize the peace process and to damage the reputation or the Palestinian people."

"Presidential adviser Nabil Abu Rudeineh [said the PA] 'condemns this operation especially coming after the hudna and the calming, which were achieved with the factions... the Authority opposes any action, which targets civilians. This is a part of the hudna which was declared in Sharm e-Sheikh. We oppose any violation of this hudna.' He also clarified that this sort of action harms the supreme national interests of the Palestinian people."

Under the new leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, the message to Palestinian society remains essentially unchanged from that of the Arafat era. PA leaders condemn the timing and potentially negative ramifications of a terror attack, but not the act itself.

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Give the terrorists billions - but be a little more careful this time!

At least they are paying lip service to the idea of the money not going to terror.

Top U.S. and European officials will meet with the new Palestinian leadership in London today to consider $4.5 billion or more in new aid that they hope will bolster the Palestinian government, boost the economy and strengthen the drive toward peace in the Middle East.

Pledging money may prove to be the easy part. The larger challenge will be avoiding the corruption that drained the life out of aid programs during the long tenure of Yasser Arafat, who died in November.

Newly elected Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and others have begun cleaning house. Reformers in parliament last week forced a purge of nearly all corruption-tainted officials from the new Cabinet.

'But things haven't changed as much as they need to change, and it is going to be very difficult,' said Danielle Pletka of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, who monitored Palestinian aid programs during a decade as a senior staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Government officials and financial experts in the United States and other donor countries agree. They predict that the struggle over corruption and spending will set off political battles that could last for years.

Many officials also fear that cracking down hard could strain the fragile Palestinian leadership and endanger the whole peace process. (So give the terrorists money for peace!) Time after time, the officials say, such concerns have led donors to turn a blind eye to corruption.

The Palestinian Authority has received billions of dollars for schools, hospitals, roads and other basic needs in the last decade, one of the most expensive development programs ever on a per-capita basis. But millions of dollars disappeared and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict raged for much of that time, leaving little to show for the money. (Um, show me a single hospital built during the "peace process." It isn't that a percentage was used for terror - ALL of it was!)

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The husband and mother of judge whom a white supremacist tried to have killed shot to death

The husband and mother of a judge whom a white supremacist tried to have killed were shot to death.

Investigators in Chicago said it is too early to say who committed Monday’s slayings of the husband and mother of Judge Joan Lefkow. Matthew Hale has been convicted of trying to have Lefkow killed in 2003 after she found him in contempt of court. Hale, the founder of the anti-Semitic World Church of the Creator, is scheduled to be sentenced for that murder solicitation conviction next month.

Hale’s group first came to prominence in 1999, when a former member went on a weekend shooting spree against minorities.

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The Myth of the "Arab Street"

Slate has an article about how refreshing it is that no one is talking about the "Arab street" nowadays. You know the mythical Arab street - where hundreds of thousands of enraged Arabs are always feared to rise up and cause havoc, usually in context of "Don't make them mad! You don't want to piss off the Arab Street!"

But to anyone who has followed the recent history of the Street, it is obvious that it never existed.

Things may have been changing a bit lately, especially with recent examples in Lebanon and Egypt. But in the Palestinian areas, the myth lives on, just now it has taken on a new, peaceful side - the myth that the Palestinian street is all of a sudden aghast at the thought of terror attacks in Israel. As AP reported,

Palestinians expressed anger Saturday at an overnight suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed four Israelis and threatened a fragile truce, a departure from former times when they welcomed attacks on their Israeli foes.

Look at this - the Street all of a sudden is sympathetic to Israel! It all fits in the new script that Abbas is a miracle worker and he is going to bring peace to the Middle East!

Once again, the press is buying into an illusion. First of all, because there indeed was public support for the terror bombing in Tel Aviv:

A masked supporter of the Islamic Jihad movement, which claimed responsibility for last Frday's suicide bomb attack that killed five Israelis in Tel Aviv, holds a knife and a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, during a demonstration in the university of the West Bank town of Hebron Monday Feb. 28, 2005. The rally was the first major expression of support for Friday's bombing. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

But the more important fact that is always overlooked is that the Arab Street should be called the Arab Sheep: they do whatever the government-controlled press tells them to do. Right now, the Palestinian Authority has decided that terror bombings are counterproductive to the Palestinian cause (they've never said they were immoral or wrong), so the PA-controlled press and broadcasts didn't celebrate the bombing and the people took their cues of how they should react.

A similar thing happened back in the 70s, when Sadat made his dramatic trip to Jerusalem. The Egyptian "street" all of a sudden loved Israel! It was amazing - after decades of rallies against the Zionist enterprise, in a few minutes the entire Egyptian populace wholeheartedly supported peace with Israel!

And within a few hours of the last grains of sand of the Sinai being handed over to Egypt, guess what happened? Yes indeed, the "Egyptian" street started hating Israel again.

Now there are indications that the Arab world is starting to think for itself. With the Internet and satellite TV, it is much harder for the governments to control their people's thoughts and actions as it had been. But for the moment, the power of the Arab street is still predominantly with the leaders of the Arab world, who still use their people as pawns to try to scare the West.

And of course, there is a willing Western press more than happy to buy the whole package of the myth as long as the story fits in with what these reporters already think they know beforehand.

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Anti-semitism at Hunter college

This sign has been known to behanging inside the Palestinian Club of Hunter College for 3 months, and apparently it has been there for 10 years! During all of this time, there have been "negotiations" on how and when the sign should be taken down.

Not surprisingly, the Palestinians who support terror have been coming up with excuse after excuse to avoid taking it down.
Check out here and here for details.

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Israeli cabinet approves "Big Brother" unit - against Jews

The cabinet has approved the establishment of a special unit to combat incitement and public disruptions in protest of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan.

The unit is the idea of Justice Minister Tzippy Livni, who wants to ensure that the process of prosecuting protesters is streamlined ahead of the mass opposition to the implementation of the withdrawal from Gaza and the northern Shomron and the forced removal of the Jewish residents living there.

The government decision stipulates that the unit will be responsible for, “legal proceedings against incidents of incitement to violence, rebellion and protest activities, including blocking roads, holding unauthorized demonstrations and threats against public servants in the context of the struggle against the disengagement.”

Shabak (General Security Services) chief Avi Dichter told the cabinet that he does not believe the time for using administrative detention (jailing without trial for up to six months) against anti-withdrawal activists has arrived yet.

The Land of Israel Action Committee responded to Dichters statements saying, “The Shabak head’s examples of right-wing incitement all originate from provocations created by the Shabak and police.” The movement’s head, Aviad Vissouly, called upon the attorney general to put all the heads of right-wing groups on trial for incitement. Vissouly argued that the courts must set, once and for all, explicit guidelines as to where the borders of freedom of expression lie.

The Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) Council criticized the establishment of the new unit, which it termed, "the thought police.” “The new unit's purpose is to shut the mouths of those who are opposed to the expulsion plan and to brand them inciters," the council said. "[Its purpose is to] forbid us to think differently than the government. The democratic right to protest is slowly disappearing in face of the ‘sanctified’ disengagement plan."

The new unit will combat anti-disengagement protests and demonstrations, and will work in coordination with the Shabak to deter activists from engaging mass civil disobedience.

Activist Barch Marzel, who heads the newly-founded Jewish National Front suggested sarcastically that Deputy State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan – appointed head of the legal team for the new unit – ask for the death penalty when punishing anti-government activists. "When in a dictatorship, act like you are in a dictatorship," Marzel said. “If someone can have a police investigation opened against him for calling Sharon a dictator, then it is possible for punishments like that to eventually be meted out in the same manner.”

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Website of the week - Jews in Green

There is a lot of great information on this site, both historical as well as ideas of how you can help Jewish servicemen today.

What is "Jews in Green"?
It is a website devoted to Jewish servicemembers: past, present, and future.

Jews in Green (JIG) is an idea I have had for a few years now. After enlisting in the Marine Corps at 18, serving for 9+ years and then making the transition to the officer ranks, I've come to realize that being a Jew in the service presents some unique challenges. My hope is that by creating this website, other Jews serving in our armed forces can learn what resources are available for them, share their experiences with one another, and offer support when needed.

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Trust America or Trust G-d?

A more religious-oriented post than normal:

It seems to me that Israel has done the best for herself, historically, when she didn't rely on outside people or countries or institutions to help her out. 1948 and 1967 were miracles when Israelis felt most threatened; in 1956 Israel relied on France. In 1973 Israel thought she was secure and relied on her own reputation from 1967; during Oslo Israel relied on empty promises and words.

Although I appreciate President Bush's clear commitment to Israel, it is possible that it is the worst thing ever to happen to her. Israel is now in a position where she is putting all of her security marbles in a basket of American promises (and wished-for promises) as well as in the "good faith" of people who were referred to as terrorists only a few months ago.

In my view, whenever Israel loses sight of who she is and of her dependence on the Almighty, G-d repays the favor by treating her like other nations. And when that is the game being played, Israel is not going to win.

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Pointing Fingers to Avoid the Subject

So now we are back to 1994, when Arabs bombed Israel and killed hundreds of Jews, but Israel didn't respond because of a "peace process." But this time, there is a twist.

In the 90's, they blamed all the bombs on Hamas and Islamic Jihad, so the PA would be "off the hook" and world leaders could credibly lie that Arafat couldn't control the "militants." After all, the PA was a peace partner - they wouldn't sanction a bombing, right?

Four years of the Oslo war, of PA "policemen" turning into suicide bombers, of the PA-paid Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade later.....

And now suddenly Hamas and the (Gaza) Islamic Jihad is in the clear too..they are now also "peace partners"...and therefore suspicion cannot fall on them! Now we must find a new bogeyman, and he is right across the border in Syria.

Israel discounts Hizbollah's denial and Syria's denial, and accepts Hamas' and Islamic Jihad's denials. Why is this? Because of evidence and intelligence - or because of politics? Because hardly anyone ever blamed Hizbollah or Syria for the hundreds of terror attacks during the Oslo war - and now, magically, Hamas is clean and Syria is the culprit?

How blind can Israel's leadership be? When have Hamas, Fatah, IJ and Hezbollah NOT acted in concert? They might differ in their instruments but they are playing the same notes. And the symphony of "Destroy Israel" has not changed in 56 years.

JERUSALEM Feb 26, 2005 — Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Saturday blamed Syria and a Palestinian militant group based there for a suicide bombing that killed four Israelis outside a Tel Aviv nightclub and shattered an informal truce, prompting him to freeze plans to hand over security responsibilities in the West Bank. Syria denied the charges.

Abbas angrily accused a "third party" of orchestrating Friday's attack to sabotage the Mideast peace process, and his security officials said the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, was involved.

In Beirut, Hezbollah, denied the accusations, and Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group with members in Lebanon and Syria, claimed responsibility from the Lebanese capital, reversing initial denials by its members in the Palestinian territories.

If the bombing had been planned and inspired by militants in the Palestinian territory, Abbas would be under tremendous pressure to crack down. But since it looked as if the bombing was linked to Islamic Jihad in Syria, and perhaps inspired by Hezbollah, Israel was likely to give him more leeway.

from another article...
Meanwhile, Fatah and Islamic Jihad members fired shots in the air in celebration following the attack.

Sometimes one can get ill from deja vu.

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PA offers smoke and mirrors, Israel praises them

Aaaaargh! How blind can Sharon's government be??? Optimism is a great thing, but to base a country's security policy on nothing more substantial than wishful thinking is foolhardy at best, gross negligence at worst.

It is deja vu - not too long ago, before the Oslo war, Arafat would institute cosmetic half-measures, just enough to get the international community off his back but nothing to change the status quo. Now we are treated to Abbas creating a temporary, artificial hudna that there is no real indication will stay in place one second longer than necessary to extract concessions from Israel.

And Israel's current government is believing him, based on his stellar record as a Holocaust-denier, I suppose.

The Palestinian security services have recently located and sealed 12 arms-smuggling tunnels along the Philadelphi route, on the Gazan-Egyptian border, security sources say.
The Israel Defense Forces are pleased with the Palestinian efforts, which were ordered by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. At the same time, however, the Palestinian successes have strengthened the long-standing opinion in the defense establishment that the arms-smuggling tunnels depend for their existence on the PA's tacit cooperation.
...
The Egyptians could have posted similar successes against the tunnels on their side of the border, defense sources say, but in practice, their activity against the tunnels has been negligible. Israel and Egypt are still at odds over Cairo's proposal to man its side of the Gazan border with Border Police units, which are considered higher quality than the regular police forces stationed there now.

The Palestinians apparently stepped up their efforts against the smuggling tunnels in order to convince both Israel and the United States that the IDF should leave the Philadelphi route when it leaves the rest of Gaza. (In other words, as soon as Israel is gone, Gaza becomes a gigantic arms warehouse. -EoZ) Currently, the IDF is slated to remain on Philadelphi even after the disengagement from Gaza, to prevent arms smuggling into the Strip. The government has no objection to leaving Philadelphi if an end to the arms smuggling could be assured; the problem is that the current cease-fire is fragile, and should it collapse, the PA is liable to permit large-scale smuggling to resume.

In that case, moreover, the smugglers would probably to try to bring in more sophisticated weaponry, such as Katyusha rockets or shoulder-launched antiaircraft missiles, which could change the nature of the war.

Since the intifada began, the IDF has destroyed more than 100 arms-smuggling tunnels around Philadelphi. In the course of these operations, it also destroyed some 1,400 Palestinian houses and suffered many casualties.

While the army praises the PA's achievements on the smuggling tunnels, it says that the PA has been only partially successful in other areas. On one hand, it is trying to prevent Qassam rockets and mortars from being fired into Israel, and recently, there have been several reports of PA troops opening fire on Qassam-launching cells that refused orders to leave the launch zones.

In some cases, PA troops have even arrested cell members, who come mainly from Hamas. These moves are widely supported by the Palestinian public, which is sick of the fighting, and there have even been cases of Palestinian civilians calling the PA security services to report on Qassam cells in their area.

Hamas, understanding the public's desire for calm, has also significantly reduced its activity. The combination of Hamas' restraint and the PA's more aggressive measures has caused the number of attacks on Israeli targets in Gaza to drop by about 85 percent over the last two weeks from the former level of some 100 attacks a week.

Abbas has also ordered his troops to maintain internal law and order. Palestinian policemen have therefore destroyed many illegal buildings in Gaza recently; they have also started issuing traffic tickets.

Nevertheless, due to the PA's desire to refrain from open clashes with the terrorist organizations, it has not confiscated their weapons or taken any action against their other military activities. The organizations are therefore continuing to manufacture Qassam rockets undisturbed, and are also building more rocket and mortar manufactories. In addition, they are giving their members intensive military training.

Overall, however, Israel believes that the trend is positive and hopes that Abbas will expand his troops' operations and impose a genuine cease-fire. Therefore, the army is trying not to respond to any incidences of Palestinian violence, in order to give Abbas time to develop the PA's ability to impose law and order.

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Iraqi students protest long weekend as Zionist plot

Too funny! Someone ought to tell them that Hummous is kosher!

HUNDREDS of Iraqi students have demonstrated to protest a government decision to extend the weekend to include Saturday, denouncing the scheme as a "Zionist plot".

Irate high school students marched through Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, denouncing outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's decision to extend the weekend from the traditional Islamic holy day of Friday to include Saturday.

"We don't want Saturday as it is a Jewish holiday," the crowd chanted.

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The Neturei Karta continues to support the murders of Jews

Sorry, I can't even quote the article, it is so sickening. The mamzerim of Neturei Karta held a press conference in Lebanon with Hizbollah.

Just keep in mind - the terrorists that the NK's support also did this, in a neighborhood that has no real Zionists - just Jews who look the same as NK.

Every single major Orthodox group, even the anti-Zionist ones, have condemned Neturei Karta.

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The New York Sun editorial - hold Abbas accountable

• Last week the New York Times headlined an interview: "Abbas Declares War With Israel Effectively Over." What Abbas actually said was that the war with Israel would be over "when the Israelis declare that they will comply with the agreement I made in Sharm el-Sheik." In other words, at best it was a conditional termination of hostilities. Declaring the "end of conflict" is a Palestinian concession that they are keeping up their sleeves for permanent status negotiations.
• The Roadmap for Peace, to which the Bush administration has committed itself, is explicit in demanding that the Palestinians offer an "unconditional" cease-fire - and not a truce that is dependent on how they interpret Israel's response. In Arabic, the truce Abbas is declaring is not even called a cease-fire but rather a "calm."
• According to the road map, moreover, the Palestinian Authority is supposed to begin to "dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism." The Palestinian leadership has made clear that it is not intending to go this far. But for a Palestinian cease-fire offer to be more than just words, this minimal road map standard still needs to be met.
• Everyone hopes that Abbas is able to lead to a new era of relations with Israel. But this will happen only if the world holds him to his agreements to implement what he still has to do and doesn't prematurely feed him with a public relations advantage that he does not deserve.

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Palestinian blood really is cheaper

The value of a human life is infinite, but any objective analysis would show that Palestinians regard the lives of their own people as quite cheap.

Dozens of examples are easy to find, but just in today's news:

A gunman celebrating the release of prisoners in the Jenin area accidentally shot and killed one person. Omar Saleh, 34, from Ejja village near Jenin, was killed when a local man fired into the air to celebrate the release of a prisoner from Israeli jail.

According to a preliminary investigation conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, the incident occurred when Eyad Tawfiq, 30, arrived at his house in the village after he had been released from jail.

His brother-in-law, 28-year-old Haibat Taha, welcomed him by firing into the air from his M16 rifle. When he put the rifle back on his shoulder, a number of live bullets hit four men standing nearby. One of them, Salah, was killed by a live bullet in the abdomen.

This is not the first time things like this have happened. But have you ever heard a Palestinian call for the elimination of "celebratory" gun firings? It is laughable to even think about it.

Look at the lopsided prisoner swaps that Israel does periodically. Look at the measures Israel uses to protect its citizens versus the Palestinian propensity to put its children in harm's way. Look at the entire idea of suicide bombing, or "martyrdom." Look at the idea of naming streets and schools after murderers. One culture celebrates death and the other celebrates life.

Israel seems to care more about Palestinian lives than Palestinians do. If this is true, the inescapable conclusion is that Palestinian blood really is much cheaper than Jewish blood, by the Palestinians' own standards.

Perhaps when they act in such a way that they truly value human life as much as Israel does there could be a possibility of peace. Until then, it appears foolhardy to trust as a "peace" partner a people who belong to a cult of death.

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Hamas and Islamic Jihad using "calm" to plan attacks

Terror organizations are planning strategic attacks if the cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian Authority breaks down, Military Intelligence research chief Brigadier-General Yossi Kuperwasser warned the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee yesterday.
Kuperwasser said he believed that some attacks have already been planned down to the finest of details, and the groups are capable of launching the attacks almost immediately.

He also told the Knesset members that the organizations are continuing to build an infrastructure to carry out attacks, particularly in the Gaza Strip, despite the cease-fire and recent lull in violence. The panel heard that the militants are continuing to produce rockets and mortar shells, and are continuing to experiment with Qassam rockets and other weapons.

Also see " Militants hold key to Mideast peace"

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World Council of Churches bends over for Islamic world

[Ecumenical News International] The World Council of Churches (WCC) on February 21 urged its members to consider economic measures to oppose Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and praised the action of a U.S. denomination that has started a process of selective divestment from companies linked to the occupation.

'Multinational corporations have been involved in the demolition of Palestinian homes,' the WCC's main governing body said in a statement adopted during a February 15-22 meeting in Geneva. They 'are involved in the construction of settlements and settlement infrastructure on occupied territory, in building a dividing wall which is also largely inside occupied territory, and in other violations of international law.'

The WCC's central committee commended the action of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in initiating a process of phased, selective divestment from multinational corporations involved in the occupation.

'This action is commendable in both method and manner, uses criteria rooted in faith, and calls members to 'do the things that make for peace',' the WCC committee said, referring to a biblical text (Luke 19:42). It encouraged the WCC's 347 member churches 'to give serious consideration to economic measures that are equitable, transparent and non-violent.'

Wake me up when the WCC decides to divest from companies dealing with China, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar.....

It is particularly hilarious when they do these things in the name of "morality."

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Interview with Sharansky (Jerusalem Post)

Why can't Israel elect this guy as prime minister?

Few people can claim to have left as impressive, varied and indelible an imprint on postwar Jewish history as Natan Sharansky.

The man who won fame for having stood up to an evil superpower armed with nothing but conviction, poise and resolve has not only endured lengthy years in prison and solitary confinement, but has also become an icon of the West's victory over Soviet totalitarianism.

Sharansky's eventual arrival here seemed like a natural continuation of his life before making aliya. First as a private citizen, then as a journalist and finally as a politician, he became an advocate for universal freedom. Having been fortunate enough to see his salvation followed by that of the rest of Soviet Jewry, he set out to help the masses of newly arrived immigrants overcome the hardships that inevitably involved their absorption into Israel.

That is how in 1996 he entered politics by establishing an immigrant party, and that is how he became a cabinet minister, a position in which he has been, on and off, for the better part of a decade.

As a politician, Sharansky's main accomplishment has been giving Russian-speaking immigrants a sense of belonging and an address for their many grievances. As minister of trade and industry he fought for consumer rights, demanding that retailers display prices, and as minister of the interior he eased some measures that had been designed to mistreat people whose Jewishness was doubted by the Orthodox establishment.

And yet, as he himself now concedes to the Post, the ticket on which he ran originally has clearly run its course, and happily so. The so-called Russian electorate has joined the Israeli fray and made its own political choices according to national rather than ethnic priorities. That is what the 2003 election showed, when Sharansky won a mere two Knesset seats, which he quickly merged with the Likud.

Back when he entered politics, Sharansky carefully avoided making a choice between Right and Left. Now he has made a clear choice. Not only has he joined Likud, he has, in fact, outflanked from the Right Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whose disengagement policy he flatly rejects.

For Sharansky the icon, this is perhaps a gamble, one that makes some wonder whether he is not risking carrying his hitherto heroic biography into an anti-climactic aftermath as a political anecdote, yet another victim of the tiringly familiar, intra-Israeli territorial debate.

However, for Sharansky the dissident this position is a natural one. And he clearly is not disturbed by the prospect that the political part of his career may indeed be close to its end.

Having just returned from yet another US tour, where he spoke at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and met with President George Bush for a discussion of his new book, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, Sharansky evidently knows that unlike most others, for him the possibly imminent end of his political career should not be the end of his journey. In fact, the political part of his life already seems to fill him with stoicism and humor rather than charge him with ambition.

"Without a sense of humor," he says, "you cannot survive in a Soviet prison, and without having the experience of surviving in a Soviet prison, it would have been very difficult for me to have survived the Knesset."

The Bush administration has made declarations about its desire to see states such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia become more democratic. What concrete steps did you suggest to the president that the United States take to encourage those countries to democratize?
First, we discussed the principle that a dictatorship cannot be a lasting ally. They can be temporary allies - Stalin was a big ally of the West for four years, though before and after he was a big enemy - but they cannot be lasting allies. There is a whole theory about this that is discussed in my book and which the president accepts.

The problem is that with each country you have to build your own road map to democracy. In America, I was asked, "Pakistan is our ally now - do you expect us to start blockading it?"

Of course, a time of war is different. No one would have expected Roosevelt and Churchill in 1943 to say to Stalin, "You are not our ally because you have the gulag." But it was also not said in 1933. It was also not said in 1953, and it was not said in 1963. [There were those who] tried to prevent it from being said in 1973, when senator [Henry "Scoop"] Jackson was saying it. So there must be a differentiation between immediate cooperation and long-term cooperation.

The real problem is appeasement. Look at all the dictators in history you had to fight, whether it was Stalin, Hitler, or even Saddam Hussein... for us it was Yasser Arafat... there was a long period of appeasement, of a refusal to link the guarantee of human rights with the question of security.

I think, already back at the time of the first Gulf War in 1991, America should have linked [military help] for Saudi Arabia to the freedom of immigration. There are so many Americans from Saudi Arabia who are suffering from the lack of freedom of immigration. As the experience with the Soviet Union showed, something as seemingly small as the relative liberalization of the freedom of immigration immediately puts tremendous pressure on a totalitarian regime. In the case of Saudi Arabia, it could be something as small, but very popular in the United States now, as minimal rights for women. It could be permission from some opposition delegations to visit Saudi Arabia.

What approach did you suggest the US take on new PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas?
I told them that what really matters is what the position of the free world will be. If the US, Israel and Europe say, "We will embrace you only if you embrace democratic reforms" - then you have a unique chance. But if the message will be, "Give us stability and then we'll talk," then I think it will be very difficult for him to bring about reforms.

If he does [institute reforms], he will have to fight terror, because the terrorists will resist all of it. But if he delays reform in order to fight terror, then he can have a cease-fire one day and allow terror the next.

If the Palestinians were to create a liberal democracy, what concessions would you be willing to make?
I think we have to start [to make concessions] long before they become a completely liberal democracy. But as of today, I think it would be a big mistake to dismantle even one settlement. We gave them Arafat's autonomy for free. We gave them recognition of a Palestinian state for free. And now we are giving them the disengagement for free. If the disengagement were linked to democratization, I would be the first to support it, rather than vote against it, as I am going to do.

Why do you think Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is so devoted to the disengagement plan?
My theory is that he is desperate because of the fact that, for so many years, Israel has tried again and again to make peace, only to find again and again that we don't have a partner. (On the contrary, we have the main source of terrorist activity.) And that the world is against us. No matter what we do, no matter that the Palestinians keep trying to destroy us, more and more is always demanded. I think Sharon is trying to stop this cycle by saying, we'll make one dramatic step that will be very difficult for us, and we won't link it to any demands [on the Palestinians] because we don't believe that they would fulfill any demands. And then we will get some relief from the rest of the world.

However, I believe not only that we will not gain 10 years [of peace], but that we will not gain even one day. It will just be used as a pretext to say, "Fourteen settlements is not enough, you must dismantle 24," to say that we will have caused further terrorism by not having withdrawn from more land.

As I have said since 1995, the depth of our concessions should equal the depth of the Palestinians' democratic reforms. Not only have our concessions not been connected to democratic changes, but they have been connected to steps that only strengthened and unified the power of Arafat. One-sided concessions, no matter how sincere, cannot bring positive change.

You quit the Barak government over Camp David. What are your red lines for this government, which has disengagement as its goal?
I ask myself that question every morning. I quit the Barak government to stop a dangerous process by bringing down the government and supporting an alternative. This time, I can't go from a left-wing government to a right-wing government. This time the battle has to be fought from inside the government and the Likud. I hope the disengagement can be stopped and I will do everything possible to stop it.

So, there are some very serious things that concern me. But if I am looking for excuses to stay, I have them. This government is not just about the disengagement. This government has also made one of the most important economic reforms in the history of the state, frankly. It has also made the issue of anti-Semitism a very important part of its work.

Regarding anti-Semitism, do you think that the recent attempt in Russia to outlaw Jewish organizations is just an isolated incident, or do you think it's a phenomenon that will spread?
You're talking about this awful, disgusting letter [to Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov in January]... It's very symbolic that 20 members of Parliament felt that it was good for their political careers to sign it... But Jewish institutions are developing, schools and centers are opening; the government is not creating any problems about this.

Putin still thinks that the best thing for him and for his government is to allow the Jewish community to develop. He has problems with some specific Jews; in his fight against the oligarchs he is using the prejudice of the people and saying that most of them are Jewish. But to say that there is a major trend of trying to undermine Jewish organizations, I think, is not right. People who want to be part of the Jewish community have the opportunity to do so.

Does the Yukos case in Russia remind you of "the bad old days" that you knew?
Yukos is a very serious case, and I feel a very deep personal sympathy. I think it should play a part in the contacts that Russia has with the free world.

Remember that for 1,000 years, the Russian empire ruled the very mind of its people, each and every one. Millions worked for the KGB. If your child said the wrong thing in kindergarten, you could end up in prison. It was a country entirely ruled by fear.

Today, we see that Putin is limiting journalistic freedom somewhat, and competition for power, too... but people live without that fear. There's no more gulag. And there's no way that things will return to such a state.

What just happened in Ukraine shows that there's no going back - because there's no more control over people's minds. Once the germ of freedom gets out... you can no longer have Stalin murdering millions.

Of course, that doesn't ensure perfect democracy. Only 12 years after the French Revolution, Napoleon came to power. So, you have to have constant pressure.

As a former dissident and Prisoner of Zion, are you bothered by the increasing use of administrative detention in Israel?
I do think it's very undemocratic, and a big problem. The first time I was approached about this issue was only a few months after I had come to this country [in 1986]. Palestinians approached me and complained that a group of people had been denied trials. At the time they were talking about just 13 people. Now, that's a dream, to have so few.

The problem is, we're at war. And in war, democracy is always problematic... Administrative detention is a necessity, but we must use it carefully. It's important to have laws limiting its use, and to constantly inspect it, under a microscope, with checks and such... because, very easily, we can go from 13 [people in detention] to 30,000.

Is it good? No. Does it bother me? Very much. But do we have a choice? I don't think we do. Does it require constant supervision? Absolutely.

After almost 10 years in the Knesset, your influence is on the wane. Is your political career coming to a close?
It could be... but, you know, I have never viewed my political career as an end unto itself. I never saw the establishment of a political party [Yisrael B'Aliya] as an eternal thing. It's a tool that, for a given period of time, is useful. In 1998, when I founded the party, I said that if we were really successful, we wouldn't exist in five years - because new immigrants would integrate into Israeli society, feel more Israeli and vote for larger "Israeli" parties.

As for my views on a Palestinian state, I'm still saying what I've said all along... that I'm willing to give the Palestinians every right except for the right to destroy me. And what's the only way to ensure that that won't happen? To demand that their state will be a democratic state, a state whose leaders are subject to the will of its citizens. Since 1993, we've gone further and further from that dream by endorsing a [Palestinian] fear society.

Now, we have a golden opportunity to bring about democratic reform because the one man who believes in that just happens to be the leader of the most powerful nation in the world. So I say, let's seize that opportunity.

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Israeli government to destroy 25 Jewish communities

Might as well call a spade a spade. This isn't "disengagement"; this is the destruction of Jewish communities. This is Israel doing what generations of Arabs failed to do, not for lack of trying. This is a plan that is based on nothing but wishful thinking.This is possibly the biggest disaster to befall Israel since the 1973 war.

This is not Yamit. Abbas is not Sadat. Hamas and Hizbollah are not going to be fought against by the PA or PLO. This is an irreversible and disastrous move that has no real benefit.

If there was any indication that Israel would never have to give up any land beyond Gaza, I could understand this. If there was any indication that Abbas declares Hamas and Islamic Jihad an enemy, I could almost understand this. If there was any reason to think that Kassam rockets will not be raining down on Jewish communities within the Green Line in a year or two, there may be something to talk about.

But this is unilateral surrender of historic Jewish land. This is a unilateral reward for terrorism. This is exactly the wrong message to send to the Arab world, which has historically used any Israeli concessions as reason to redouble efforts to destroy her.

There may be a very short term reduction in terror. Is this worth the upheaval of thousands of the most loyal Zionists?

This is a very, very sad day in Israel's history. This is a day where Israel says it cares more about what the other nations think than what is best for Israel. And when that happens, Israel is at the mercy of the world community.

And we know how much the world cares about Israel.

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Anti-Semitism, Qatar-style

So what else is new? Another US "ally."
Television show aired in Persian Gulf country replete with anti-Israel sentiments, Holocaust denial

TEL AVIV - A Qatari television show currently airing in the Persian Gulf state features virulent anti-Israel sentiments and Holocaust denial.

The show, which is based on a book by late Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani, was slated to air in Syria and on Hizbullah's television channel, but in light of international pressure aimed at the terror group's TV station the show only airs in Qatar for the time being.

In one scene, a holocaust survivor who appears in the show, and later resorts to prostitution, claims the Nazis did no wrong.
"I didn't see any gas chambers," she is seen saying.

The show, which includes scenes in Hebrew, also depicts supposed massacres of Arabs by Jews, and claims the Zionist plan was to push Arabs into the sea.

At one point, an actor depicting former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin calls on Jews to murder Arab civilians.

"We should kill civilians during the war for the establishment of Israel…in order to scare them," he says.

The show represents the common Arab narrative regarding events surrounding Israel's establishment in 1948, says Yotam Feldner from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which has been following the show.

"Nothing is surprising about the show's content," he told Ynet. "The same themes of Holocaust denial and massacres of Arabs."

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There is a solution

There is an organization that is trying to do exactly this. The only people that would be against this idea are those for whom destroying Israel is more important than helping Palestinians. It is a nice litmus test to ask people who claim to love the Palestinians - would you be for or against Palestinians voluntarily relocating to any other country?

An interesting sidenote: The latest estimate of the cost to evacuate Gaza stands at NIS 4.3 billion, or almost $1B. According to Emigrations.net, the cost to move a Palestinian farmer to a Venezuela is about $1500. So for the same cost, Israel could instead voluntarily transfer over a half-million Palestinians to other countries where they can live in lives of peace and prosperity. Which is more humane?

THERE IS A SOLUTION TO THE CONFLICT

by Martin Sherman

Some time ago, at the Jerusalem Summit, a survey of prevalent attitudes among the Palestinians was made public; it was carried out among a representative sample of the adult population of Judea and Samaria by a well-known Israel institute in collaboration with a respected Palestinian institute. The poll results point to respondents' dissatisfaction with their quality of life, with the performance of their leadership, and with the chances to improve their situation in the foreseeable future.

The survey also showed that more than 40% of the respondents had considered emigrating to another country; only 15% answered that nothing could make them permanently leave their homes. About 70% pointed to some material factor (housing, education, generous financing, etc.) that could bring them to decide to move their permanent place of residency to another land.

For some reason, the survey was received with astonishment. Certain elements, primarily on the Left, tried to cast aspersions on it and even to discount its credibility; it is not difficult to guess why. The findings seriously damage their political philosophy, which is greatly dependent on a myth of the Palestinians' uncompromising attachment to the land. Furthermore, the survey results undermine the argument - currently widespread even among certain segments of the Right - that there is no solution to the demographic problem except retreat from the lands of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

A finding is taking shape, therefore, that points to the fact that the Palestinians are not so different from other people. When their situation is bad, they are interested in finding their future in a different place. That fact has far-reaching political consequences. In effect, the stubborn persistence of the Palestinian problem can be, to a large degree, attributed to the special status accorded the Palestinians as opposed to the rest of humanity.

Take, for example, the matter of the refugees. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is responsible for all the refugees in the world - except the Palestinian refugees. For them, there is a separate and unique body: UNRWA. Each of these bodies has a different definition of "refugee". According to the definition of the High Commissioner, the number of refugees decreases over time; while according to UNRWA's definition, their number continually grows with each passing year.

If the definition accepted for the rest of the world was applied to the Palestinian case, the number of Palestinian refugees would be about 200,000 - less than five percent of the number according to the unique definition of UNRWA, which counts 4,250,000 refugees. As it turns out, the ongoing existence of the Palestinian refugees is in large part the bureaucratic product of an organization whose entire existence is dependent on the perpetuation of the problem it was meant to solve.

It should be pointed out that also in the Arab world, the Palestinians suffer discrimination. For example, about two months ago, Saudi authorities announced the easing of restrictions on citizenship for foreigners living in the country - with the exception of the approximately half-a-million Palestinians who live there. The reasoning given by the Riyadh authorities was their desire to prevent the "destruction of the Palestinian national identity."

The spokesman for the Arab League also explained the discrimination against the Palestinians in the Arab world by reference to the need "to maintain their national identity," adding that "if every Palestinian living in a particular country would be absorbed in that state, he would have no reason to return to Palestine." It appears, therefore, that the non-Palestinian Arabs are much more determined than the Palestinians themselves to perpetuate the Palestinian national identity.

The ongoing failure in facing the Palestinian issue demands unconventional thinking in an attempt to settle it, and the conclusions from the foregoing are obvious. First of all, the Palestinian problem is very much an artificial product of the evilness of Arab states (and the foolishness of the state of Israel). Secondly, it appears that by the combination of two factors would make it possible to bring about a dramatic decrease, by non-violent means, in the size of the "Palestinian problem", perhaps even its solution:

1. Pressure must be exercised by the democratic world on the leaders of the Arab states to desist from the gross discrimination against the Palestinians living in their countries, and to absorb those who so wish.

2. Generous financial assistance must be given to those living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza to facilitate their emigration and the building of a new life for themselves and their families in other places in the world.

What could be more liberal and humanistic than the demand to put an end to discrimination against a person because of his background, and giving freedom of choice to an individual - including a Palestinian individual - in deciding the his fate and that of his family?

Martin Sherman was the Academic Director of the Jerusalem Summit, November 2004, and lecturer in Political Science at Tel Aviv University.

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Rose's Story

Read it.

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Iraq leader under threat for Israel views

Sigh.

Baghdad, Iraq, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- After three new attempts on his life, including a firefight in front of his house Wednesday, outspoken Mithal al-Alusi, a Sunni Muslim, is sure insurgents are still out to get him for his views on peace and tolerance.

Al-Alusi's sons were gunned down one week ago in a car in which he decided not to get in at the last minute. Since then, he said his house has been attacked three times, including a fierce firefight Wednesday -- apparently between insurgents and private guards protecting him.

Police were very slow to respond because they don't support his views on peace with Israel, al-Alusi said. The leader of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation has been outspoken in his belief that Iraq must align with other democratic countries in the Middle East, possibly Turkey and others, to accept the current situation and make peace with Israel.

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Freed terrorist tries to attack Jews

Let's release 500 more!

An IDF force yesterday spotted two armed terrorists approaching the Jewish community of Bracha, overlooking Shechem in the Shomron. The soldiers opened fire, killing both terrorists.

One of the two would-be murderers was Atzam Mantzur, 29. He was apprehended by Israel in October 2001, but was later freed from prison in January 2004 by the Sharon government as part of an exchange for captured Israeli Elchanan Tenenbaum and the bodies of three IDF soldiers murdered by Hizbullah.

The other terrorist was 24-year-old Mahyub Yusef Kiny. Both terrorists were members of the PLO’s Tanzim terror group.

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Algerian terrorists targeted Eiffel Tower

Here's how the French love affair with terrorists gets rewarded:

PARIS (AP) - Islamic militants under investigation for allegedly planning an attack on the Russian Embassy in Paris had other targets on their list, including the Eiffel Tower, police and judicial officials said Wednesday.

Three men, all Algerians, were detained Jan. 11 in connection with an investigation into a network of Islamic radicals supporting Chechen rebels, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

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French more pro-terror than Abbas?

Ah, the French. I like this latest excuse, using recent problems in Lebanon as an excuse for their decades-old policy of embracing terrorists. C'est la vie.

In the past two weeks, the officials said, France has rebuffed appeals by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, which would prevent it from raising money in Europe through charity groups. The United States has long called Hezbollah a terrorist organization, but the French, American and European officials said, have opposed doing so, and argue that making such a designation now would be unwise, given the new turbulence in Lebanon.

Israeli and American officials say that the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has told them that he, too, regards Hezbollah as a destructive force in the Middle East, one determined to undermine peace talks by supporting militant groups that attack Israelis.

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More moderation from Abbas: Execute "collaborators", reward terrorists

Let's see what we have here:

- Abbas decides that those who helped fight against terror in Gaza should be killed.
- Yesterday, Abbas decided that those who tried to kill Jews should be rewarded with jobs and pay and protection from Israel.
- A death penalty - will the American and European left make a statement condemning this?
- A mufti who decides on who can be killed, with no separation of the "secular" Palestinian government and Islam - will the American and European left condemn this as well?

A story filled with irony, but why should we let this stop us rewarding the Palestinians with more money and land?

In the first decision of its kind since he succeeded Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has ratified death sentences against three Palestinians found guilty of 'collaboration' with Israel.

It is not clear when the three men, whose identities were not revealed, will be executed by firing squad.

However, senior PA officials told The Jerusalem Post that the three were Gaza Strip residents who had been convicted of 'high treason' for tipping off Israeli security forces about the whereabouts of wanted gunmen.

Sakher Bsaisso, a senior Fatah official who also serves as PA governor of the northern Gaza Strip, confirmed on Wednesday that Abbas had authorized death sentences against three alleged 'collaborators.'

Bsaisso said the three had been convicted of assisting Israel in the assassination of a number of Palestinian activists in the Gaza Strip over the past four years, but refused to elaborate.

He said Abbas also approved death sentences passed against scores of Palestinians found guilty of criminally motivated murders.
Bsaisso said Abbas's decision to carry out the death sentences came after PA mufti Sheikh Ikrimah Sabri authorized the executions as required by law.

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