Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Something is rotten in the French Republic's diplomacy.

Something is rotten in the French Republic's diplomacy. On Friday, November 5, President Jacques Chirac hurried to the Arabian Peninsula to offer his condolences to the new president of the United Arab Emirates after his father's passing.

Under this pretense, Chirac was absent when Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi went to Brussels to meet with the European Union members to discuss the future of Iraq.

One is stunned by Chirac's priorities when it comes to international issues.

Chirac's dangerous liaisons with dictators have created a hidden diplomatic principle: preserving the stability of dictatorship rather than promoting democracy.

"Betrayal" is the only word that comes to mind. French diplomacy as a whole is sullied by this position, at least as long as Chirac remains president.

China and Iraq are two examples of his leniency toward dictatorship.

China may open its doors to the free market economy, and liberalization of its society is on the way. But it is still a communist dictatorship.

This dictatorship is celebrated to such a degree in France that last February the Eiffel Tower was illuminated in red: the symbol of communism, yes – but one might also think of the blood of the victims murdered by such a despotic power.

Ignoring the consequences to the Chinese supporters of democracy, Chirac has pleaded for France and the EU to be able to sell weapons to China. A few weeks ago, in Beijing, he again asked that the embargo be lifted, seemingly forgetting that weapons sold to a dictatorship can only be used against freedom.

But for the French president this moral assumption obviously carries little value.

Iraq represents the ugliest side of French diplomacy.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier recently stated that France wanted to include "those who have chosen the path of armed resistance" at the negotiation table with the present Iraqi government and the coalition.

Bluntly put, this resistance represents either Saddam's henchmen or Islamic fundamentalists. Either way, France is supporting dictatorship.

It is a subtle way to question the legitimacy of Allawi's government.

That is why France is ordering the Iraqi government to give democratic guarantees it wouldn't even dare ask of friendly authorities, in the Arab world or elsewhere.

In the long run – as far as the Middle East is concerned – the US will be better off with Bush's diplomatic legacy than France will be with Chirac's, a legacy that may live in infamy once a true democratic vision guides French diplomacy.

On domestic matters, Chirac usually follows the public opinion polls. He does the same with foreign affairs.

But statecraft is not a matter of polls, and a statesman must know when to go against isolationist temptation and public-opinion pacifism.

It is the very same public opinion, especially in Europe, that anathematized Bush.

What were his crimes? Establishing a democracy in Afghanistan, toppling a dictator, and sowing the seeds for free and open societies to grow in the Middle East.
But instead of wanting Bush to be defeated in the last elections for promoting democracy, Western public opinion should have demanded Chirac's dismissal for siding with dictators.

It is stunningly hard to believe that the former could be preferred, but the upside-down nature of public opinion seems to confirm it.

A sad reality! Yet the promotion of free and open societies must become a priority for French diplomacy, and for Europe generally.

Will a Gaza "Hamas-stan" Become a Future Al-Qaeda Sanctuary? -

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror and David Keyes

In light of Israel's planned disengagement from Gaza, to take place in 2005, and the termination of Yasser Arafat's hold on power, the eventual take-over of the Gaza Strip by Hamas certainly cannot be ruled out. Would a Gaza 'Hamas-stan' become another al-Qaeda sanctuary in the future? In the past, al-Qaeda sought to establish itself wherever there was a security vacuum - in remote mountain areas or in economically weak, failed states. Would a security vacuum in a post-withdrawal Gaza facilitate al-Qaeda's entry there?

The affinity of Hamas for groups that are part of the al-Qaeda network was dramatically demonstrated in 2004 when Hamas distributed computer CDs in the West Bank and Gaza that express the organization's identification with Chechen terrorists and with other 'holy wars' in the Balkans, Kashmir, and Afghanistan.

Al-Qaeda and Hamas are often funded by the same people and organizations. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, 'Hamas [leaders]...often use the very same methods and even the same institutions [as al-Qaeda] to raise and move their money.'

Both al-Qaeda and Hamas legitimize the use of suicide bombing based on the same religious authorities: Sheikh Salman al-Auda (Saudi), Sheikh Safar al-Hawali (Saudi), Sheikh Hamud bin Uqla al-Shuaibi (Saudi), Sheikh Sulaiman al-Ulwan (Saudi), and Sheikh Qardhawi (Egypt-Qatar). All five clerics appear on the Hamas website.

To prevent a safe haven for terrorism from emerging in Gaza, Israel must maintain control over the strategic envelope around Gaza even after its disengagement, particularly air, land, and sea access to the territory, though Israel will face enormous international pressure to ease its grip as a gesture to a post-Arafat regime.

Similarly, Western powers may seek to limit Israel's freedom of movement to re-enter Gaza, should security conditions deteriorate (i.e., an increase in Kassam rocket attacks on Israel). Ironically, by seeking to neutralize Israeli military power, Western states would help create the very sort of security vacuum in Gaza that al-Qaeda requires in order to establish a new sanctuary.

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How can 60 million people be so dumb? French regard Arafat as a hero - poll.

The French regard Yasser Arafat as a hero rather than a terrorist, according to a new poll.

Asked to choose whether the Palestinian Authority chairman is a 'hero of national resistance' or a terrorist, 43 percent chose the former and 27% the latter.

Ten percent said Arafat fit into both categories, while 9% said he was neither.

The poll, published Monday and commissioned jointly by the Liberation newspaper and a national public radio station, also found that three times as many French people hold Prime Minister Ariel Sharon more responsible for Middle East violence than hold Arafat.

In addition, 34% said they had more sympathy for the Palestinians, as opposed to 13% for Israel.

The End of Arafat's Lies

Yasser Arafat at the End of His Lies - Hillel Halkin

There is, in the world of diplomacy, only one type of leader with whom one must never negotiate under any circumstance - the leader who is a liar. It isn't a question of moral principle. It's a purely pragmatic question of utility. A terrorist who can be trusted to keep his word is a man you can do business with. It is impossible, though, to do business with a liar. There is no point in making agreements with someone who does not believe in the importance of keeping them.
This is a truth so simple and so obvious that it seems all but impossible to understand now how it could have eluded those who welcomed the disaster of Oslo with open arms 11 years ago. They thought that lying, like terrorism, was something that, if done up to a point for a purpose, could be after that point given up. They didn't realize that a man who has lied all his life will go on lying right up to his death. (NY Sun)

Harvard study: No link between poverty and terror. Freedom stops terror.

A John F. Kennedy School of Government researcher has cast doubt on the widely held belief that terrorism stems from poverty, finding instead that terrorist violence is related to a nation's level of political freedom.

Associate Professor of Public Policy Alberto Abadie examined data on terrorism and variables such as wealth, political freedom, geography, and ethnic fractionalization for nations that have been targets of terrorist attacks.

Abadie, whose work was published in the Kennedy School's Faculty Research Working Paper Series, included both acts of international and domestic terrorism in his analysis.

Though after the 9/11 attacks most of the work in this area has focused on international terrorism, Abadie said terrorism originating within the country where the attacks occur actually makes up the bulk of terrorist acts each year. According to statistics from the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base for 2003, which Abadie cites in his analysis, there were 1,536 reports of domestic terrorism worldwide, compared with just 240 incidents of international terrorism.

Before analyzing the data, Abadie believed it was a reasonable assumption that terrorism has its roots in poverty, especially since studies have linked civil war to economic factors. However, once the data was corrected for the influence of other factors studied, Abadie said he found no significant relationship between a nation's wealth and the level of terrorism it experiences.

"In the past, we heard people refer to the strong link between terrorism and poverty, but in fact when you look at the data, it's not there. This is true not only for events of international terrorism, as previous studies have shown, but perhaps more surprisingly also for the overall level of terrorism, both of domestic and of foreign origin," Abadie said.

Instead, Abadie detected a peculiar relationship between the levels of political freedom a nation affords and the severity of terrorism. Though terrorism declined among nations with high levels of political freedom, it was the intermediate nations that seemed most vulnerable.

Like those with much political freedom, nations at the other extreme - with tightly controlled autocratic governments - also experienced low levels of terrorism.

Though his study didn't explore the reasons behind the trends he researched, Abadie said it could be that autocratic nations' tight control and repressive practices keep terrorist activities in check, while nations making the transition to more open, democratic governments - such as currently taking place in Iraq and Russia - may be politically unstable, which makes them more vulnerable.

"When you go from an autocratic regime and make the transition to democracy, you may expect a temporary increase in terrorism," Abadie said.

Abadie's study also found a strong connection in the data between terrorism and geographic factors, such as elevation or tropical weather.

"Failure to eradicate terrorism in some areas of the world has often been attributed to geographic barriers, like mountainous terrain in Afghanistan or tropical jungle in Colombia. This study provides empirical evidence of the link between terrorism and geography," Abadie said.

In Abadie's opinion, the connection between geography and terrorism is hardly surprising.

"Areas of difficult access offer safe haven to terrorist groups, facilitate training, and provide funding through other illegal activities like the production and trafficking of cocaine and opiates," Abadie wrote in the paper.

A native of Spain's Basque region, Abadie said he has long been interested in terrorism and related issues. His past research has explored the effect of terrorism on economic activity, using the Basque country as a case study.

Abadie is turning his attention to the effect of terrorism on international capital flows. Some analysts have argued that terrorist attacks wouldn't have much of an impact on the economy, since unlike a war's widespread damage, the damage from terrorist attacks tends to be relatively small or confined to a small area.

In an era of open international capital markets, however, Abadie said terrorism may have a greater chilling effect than previously thought, since even a low risk of damage from a terrorist attack may be enough to send investors looking elsewhere.

This is what you can find outside the French hospital where Arafat is rotting.

From SFGate.com:

Well-wishers have created a makeshift shrine of flowers, candles and messages of support outside the hospital where Yasser Arafat is being treated.

People of all ages have come to this well-heeled Paris suburb bearing bouquets and signs of encouragement, in French and Arabic. Flowers line the wall for about 40 yards, melted wax dots the sidewalk and burning candles perfume the air.

Arafat was airlifted to the Percy Military Training Hospital on Oct. 29 from his West Bank compound. He's suffering from an ailment that doctors either haven't pinpointed or publicly disclosed.

Photos of Arafat also hang from the wall, as do huge Palestinian flags and photos of the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza.

One long, white poster says: "The wind will never make the mountain tremble. We promise you that we will continue the struggle until victory." It's signed "the Moroccans of Clamart."

A solitary Algerian, who said he had been keeping watch over the shrine for five nights in a row, said he was keeping vigil at what "has become a mosque" for Arafat.

The man, who refused to give his name, said he had spent part of the night cleaning up the site, arranging the flowers and keeping the candles lit.

In one message pinned to the wall, Ines Sebti, who wrote that she was 7, drew a picture of the Palestinian flag with two red hearts and the words "vive Arafat."

A very appropriate place for Arafat to be buried

KHAN YUNIS, Gaza Strip (AFP) - Unkempt, ankle deep in rubbish and the air thick with flies from the stinking market next door, the Arafat family plot could not be a more inauspicious burial place for the icon of Palestinian nationhood.

As Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) fights for life in a Paris hospital, Israel has made clear that it will not accede to the veteran Palestinian leader's wishes to be buried in Jerusalem and instead wants his final resting place to be in Gaza where his father and sister are already entombed.

Less than 100 square metres (yards) with two dozen tombs already in pride of place, a minimum of mourners would be able to crowd the site, stumbling over the the roughshod ground to pay their last respects.

Hidden behind a cement wall and accessible through a solitary white, metal door encrusted with mud, nothing could be less imposing or more humiliating for a man who is now unlikely to achieve his dream of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem.

Bin liners, a child's T-shirt and a traditional red keffiyeh (headdress of the type favoured by Arafat) are ground into the dust. Empty crisp bags, milk cartons, plastic bottles and broken glass are strewn across the burnt grass.

Overgrown scarlet and white bougainvillia do nothing to sweeten the nauseating stench of rotting fruit and meat, laced with dung from half-dead donkeys tied up in the adjacent market.

Laundry hanging from a run-down high-rise flat flaps over the grave of Arafat's sister, Yussra al-Qidwa, who was laid to rest in August last year, alongside their father.

But locals used to the filth and stench of the depressed town barely even notice, shrugging their shoulders when asked if they thought it a befitting final resting place for the hero of their struggle for freedom.

Watermelons and Bombs (Cornell Sun)

by Benjamin Birnbaum
Sun Staff Writer
HAIFA, Israel -- Riding an Israeli bus can be a harrowing experience. You get on, look for the seat nearest the back, and sit down. With each stop, you nervously inspect the oncoming passengers. You tell yourself that the odds of your being blown up are so extremely slim that your worry is unwarranted, yet are still haunted by images of charred-out buses from the nightly news. In short, you feel as if you are playing Russian roulette.

Knowing how apoplectic I would get taking Israeli buses, I was curious to hear the testimony of an Israeli bus driver and learn about life in Israel's most dangerous profession. And on the three-hour nighttime bus ride from Jerusalem to Haifa, I got my chance.

The driver had turned out the lights, scrapping my reading plans, so I made my way down the aisle to speak with him.

I had found the right man.

'Last January,' he began, 'an Arab man boarded my bus carrying a watermelon in a paper bag -- a popular bomb-smuggling tactic. I yelled 'TERRORIST,' and a soldier on board rushed over and subdued him until the police came. Amazingly, the bomb didn't detonate.'

The bus driver, Tamir Davidovich, lives with his family in the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Shmuel. On the night I spoke with him his wife was having a C-section with their third daughter.

Delving further into his episode, Davidovich would interrupt himself to yell out the names of the Palestinian cities we were passing -- 'Tulkarem! ... Qalqilya!' -- visible to our right beyond the fence being built to keep out suicide bombers. We were driving up Israel's 'thin waist,' seven miles at the narrowest point between its Mediterranean coast and the 'Green Line,' Israel's unofficial border with the West Bank. During the day, you can see each from opposite windows. Asked whether he worries about himself, Tamir answered: 'I can't control the future. And if I constantly worry, I'll drive myself crazy. So, I don't worry.'

'But, you ask, how was I so sure he was a terrorist?' said Tamir, still basking in his heroic moment. 'Watermelons aren't in season in January!'

Davidovich brushed off the incident and went to work the next day. Reading The Onion's mock news item -- 'Israeli Bus Driver Demands Raise' -- I thought of him.

Shin Bet: Palestinians increasing use of children in terror

According to a Shin Bet report obtained by The Jerusalem Post, the use of children in attacks is now common among all the Palestinian terror organizations.

Since the outbreak of violence in September 2000, the number of Palestinian minors involved in terror has escalated. Up until Bintawi's arrest on Thursday, 126 minors were involved in planned and executed terror acts since the beginning of 2004, with a total of 309 in the past four years.

Children as young as 11 years old are easily persuaded to join the conflict with assurances that they will gain respect in the next life. Terror organizations then distance the young recruits from their families and schools and subject them to religious and nationalistic indoctrination, the report says.

Besides being influenced by programs broadcast on Palestinian Authority television encouraging them to support jihad, children are taught in schools and summer camps, under the banner of Islam, to back resistance acts against Israel and identify with martyrs.

Parents also permit their children to participate in mass rallies in the West Bank and Gaza organized by various terror organizations. Children are often filmed carrying mock weapons or wearing explosive belts with bandannas tied around their heads, as if dressing up as martyrs.
In June 2002, security forces in Hebron discovered a photo of a baby wearing a mock explosives belt. Other children mentioned in the Shin Bet report include a 13-year-old boy from Tulkarm who, after his arrest, admitted that he had been recruited by the Islamic Jihad to carry out a suicide attack in Israel and a 15-year-old girl from Bethlehem with similar plans. The girl told security officials that her uncle, a senior Fatah Tanzim official in the city, had helped her.

In June 2003, Sa'ad Oudeh, 17, blew himself up at the French Hill intersection in Jerusalem, killing seven Israelis.

The Shin Bet report also revealed that terror organizations hide bombs inside children's toys and satchels in order to evade detection.

Room at the tomb: Jews return as residents to matriarch Rachel in Bethlehem

Room at the tomb: Jews return as residents to matriarch Rachel in Bethlehem
By israelinsider staff October 25, 2004

For the first time in hundreds of years, Jews are taking up permanent residence in Bethlehem. Two families, including parents and children, arrived Sunday at the new Rachel's Tomb residential complex. The families are living in newly built apartments on property purchased, over the course of the last several years, from Arab owners.

Israel Defense Forces officers on Monday told the families and the yeshiva students who are staying there that the army was waiting for directives from the political echelon regarding whether they could continue to remain at the site.

Right-wing activists and people involved with the yeshiva were preparing to ultimately bring 10 families to live there and transform it into a settlement near the holy site, on the northern outskirts of Bethlehem, to provide a basis for a permanent Jewish presence in that region.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to arrive Monday night and Tuesday for special prayers in memory of Mother Rachel on the traditional anniversary of her death.. Groups and individual worshipers from the length and breadth of the religious spectrum are expected to visit the site to mark the date, as they have in previous years.

The project is backed by the Rachel's Children Reclamation Foundation, Uvneh Yerushalayim; and Yeshivat Beit Orot.

Hizbullah flies first drone in Israeli airspace

Hizbullah sent its first reconnaissance drone into Israeli territory Sunday, flying over a northern corner of Israeli before crashing into the sea.

The flight by the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group is believed to be the first hostile aerial incursion from Lebanon into Israel since Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command members flew over in a hang glider in 1987 and killed six soldiers before being shot dead.

Hizbullah said in a statement that its military wing, the Islamic Resistance, sent its first-ever drone over 'occupied northern Palestine, flying over several Zionist settlements, reaching the coastal settlement of Nahariya and returning safely to its base.'

It was unclear if the drone was a homemade, makeshift aircraft or bought from abroad. Hizbullah, which is on the U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations but considered in Lebanon to be a resistance group, did not describe its capabilities, say how many it had or provide further details.

Hizbullah's al-Manar TV station said the 'Mirsad 1' drone flew over Israel at a low altitude for 20 minutes without providing further details. Mirsad means 'observation post' in Arabic.

Israel's Army claimed the craft was Iranian-made and confirmed it penetrated Israeli airspace early Sunday and flew over western Galilee.

'This incident is part of the terrorist activity carried out by the Hizbullah terrorist organization with the support of Iran and Syria under the auspices of Lebanon, with the aim of targeting Israeli citizens,' the Israeli Army said in a statement.

Later, the Lebanese military said two Israeli drones twice violated Lebanese airspace Sunday afternoon, reaching the coastal town of Damour, south of the capital, Beirut. The Israeli Army refused to comment on the Lebanese statement.
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Analysis: US, Europe preparing to gang up on Israel?

In the wake of US President George W. Bush's reelection, Washington and the European Union are set to mend fences by launching a joint initiative to jumpstart the drive for a Palestinian state in the heartland of biblical Israel.

The effort is being driven by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who sees American support for the swift implementation of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict as the best means to heal rifts created in Europe by the war in Iraq.

Blair wants Bush to make the Middle East 'peace' process the focus of his second term.

Alongside Blair's maneuvering, EU foreign policy czar Javier Solana last week released his own 'action plan' aimed at using Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza retreat to revitalize stalled implementation of the Middle East Road Map.

Sharon has insisted the Gaza pullout is a unilateral move being taken because there is no partner on the Palestinian side, and that the Road Map, while still accepted by Israel, must be temporarily frozen until the Arabs stop murdering Jews.

The EU, meanwhile, is said to be drafting plans to deploy a peacekeeping force to the Gaza Strip following Israel's withdrawal, making future IDF anti-terror incursions next to impossible.

Israel on the chopping block?
The American-led war in Iraq has created deep rifts between Washington and its British ally and the rest of Europe.

Following Bush's reelection last week, Blair made it clear the president's second term must be focused on healing those rifts by making common cause of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

'I have long argued that the need to revitalize the Middle East peace process is the single most pressing political challenge in our world today,' Blair told reporters at 10 Downing Street last Wednesday.

Coming dangerously close to using the so-called 'Israeli occupation' to legitimize Muslim violence, Blair urged relentlessness in both 'our war against terrorism and in resolving the conditions and causes on which the terrorists prey.'