Steven Plaut |
Original articles on Israel and related issues written by Steven Plaut, a professor at an Israeli university. |
Sunday, August 31, 2003
http://www.nationalinterest.org/Media/PublicationsArticles/Wistrich%2059-70.pdf Saturday, August 30, 2003
No the above headline is not a new Plautian spoof. Edgar Bronfman is the President of the World Jewish Congress and a longtime advocate of political liberalism as Judaism. He should not be confused with Charles Bronfman, who I think is his brother. Charles and Edgar are the scions of the Bronfman family booze empire. Charles is the one who is spending the family fortune on promoting Jewish homosexuality, as we documented in a recent posting. Anyways, the New York Jewish Press of AUgust 22, 03 reports, in a Jewish Telegraphic Agency news piece, the story of Edgar's latest bon mot. Edgar is a personal buddy of Uncle Shimon Peres and a longtime cheerleader for Israel's commiting Oslo suicide. He also openly endorses the use of extortionate pressure by the US to force Israel to sacrifice its security interests and toe the American line regarding the Palestinians. He effectively endorses the elimination of Israeli sovereignty in the name of promoting the American diplomat agenda at Israel's expense. The Bronfman quote that set the fires going was when he said it would be more a effective Palestinian tactic to launch attacks only against Israeli settlements and settlers, rather than inside pre-1967 Israel. Here we have the spectacle of the President of the World Jewish Congress saying it is ok for Palestinian nazis to murder Jews if they happen to live outside the 1967 Green Line, and this of course includes many Jerusalem neighborhoods of "settlers". Edgar later tried to "explain this all away" by insisting he really thinks all murder and mayhem are not nice. He added: "If the Palestinian suicide bombers only went to the settlements and told the whole world they were wrong, then the whole world would have had a case against Israel and there would be a two-state solution by now. Instead they sent them into Israel proper, which is ghastly." Never mind that the two-state solution would involve Jordan and Palestine. The spectacle of the Prez of the WJC seeking ways to help the PLO build its "case" against Israel is no less pathological. Meanwhile, the heroic and valiant Isi Leibler, a senior Vice Pres at the WJC, attacked Bronfman's call for murder. Leibler, also a wealthy Jewish industrialist, demanded that Bronfman apologize or resign. Bronfman then pulled out the modly old defense tactic of Far Leftists and insisted that Leibler and people like him were McCarthyists trying to deprive Bronfman of his rights to free expression. Now Bronfman does not live in Israel and so his calls for murder cannot be prosecuted under Israel's anti-incitement laws, which anyhow are never applied to leftist racists and pro-terrorists, only to poor pathetic Kahanists. Other than that, I do not exactly see how anyone thinks Bronfman was in any danger of being arrested for expressing his pro-murder opinions. But neverthless, he is waving his stigmata, pretty much in the same way as the Tikkun crowd constantly whine about being persecuted by a Jewish conservative witchhunt. Bronfy was endorsed by the PC Rebbe, Eric Yoffie, president of the Reform synagogue's Union of American Hebrew Congregations, and a man who has never heard of a leftist cause or bumper sticker he does not insist represents the true esence of Judaism. Bronfman eventually issued a half-hearted "apology", although I do not think that will be much comfort to the Jewish settlers murdered this week by the Palestinian savages. 2. I find it tedious to listen to the world's leftists whine about the "quagmire" the US is supposedly bogged down in there in Iraq. After all, last week the number of US casualties AFTER the war surpassed the number killed during the combat. The Left thinks this somehow redeems its own pro-Saddam activism during the war, but in fact it is nothing more than a reflection of HOW FEW American and allied troops died during the combat. The Left insists that if the "reconstruction" of Iraq has not been completed yet, this proves the whole war was evil and mistaken. SO exactly how long is a reasonable period for the "reconstruction" of Iraq to take place before being judged a success or failure? Well I have a suggestion. As a litmus test and basis for comparison, how long did the Reconstruction of the American South after the Civil War last? The answer? Many decades and in some ways it is STILL CONTINUING AND HAS NOT BEEN FINISHED. Does this long period prove that Lincoln was a warmonger and occupier seeking to steal the mineral wealth of Alabama? Meanwhile, one of the most interesting developments in the New Iraq is the American policy regarding Iraqi universities. According to the Wall Street Journal from a couple of weeks back, the US is implementing a policy of Denazification at Iraqi universities, purging them of Baathist loyalists the same way the US purged nazis and fascists from German and Japanese and Italian schools after World War II. The Iraqi universities had been propaganda institutions and apologists for Baath terror and oppression. They were filled with Baath yes-men and amen-sayers. The US decided that for peace, these people must be kicked out on their hineys and replaced with others. They bear personal responsibility for their roles in promoting terror and war. Now it occurred to me that the very best and most effective thing the US could now do to eliminate terror and war in the Middle East is to implement a similar policy of purges for Israeli universities. Israeli schools are crawling with Far Leftist radicals, serving as groveling amen-sayers and propagandists for the Israeli Left. They are at least as morally responsible for serving as mouthpieces and apologists for those promoting terror and war as the tenured Baathists, and a few of the Israeli Tenured Left would no doubt be proud to join the Baath Party. Most Israeli profs were and remain enthusiastic supporters of the Oslo Left and assisted Peres and his junta in implementing the Oslo Accords in the 90s. They are as directly responsible for the growth of terrorism as the Iraqi profs. Many Israeli profs openly justify the terror and violence by Palestinians. The academic Left's latest banner is the "One-State Solution", also known as the Rwanda Solution, where Israel will cease to exist as a Jewish state and it will be replaced by a Third World unified "Palestine" with a small Arab majority. So what could be a more effective form of Reconstruction for the Middle East? What could be a more promising basis for extracting Israel from its Oslo debacle than an American -led purge of Israeli academics directly responsible for the Oslo bloodbath and the escalation of Oslo terror? Friday, August 29, 2003
1. Monument to Ten Commandments is Removed in Alabama, but THIS monument is fine: http://chronwatch.com/editorial/contentDisplay.asp?aid=4045 2. LAtest from Shimon: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=2674 3. Thought this was cute: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34249 4. 1. Hamas Leader Rantisi: The False Holocaust - The Greatest of Lies Funded by the Zionists (August 27, 2003, MEMRI) Dr. Al-Rantisi has found time between giving his daily interviews to Western television and radio to write an article for Al-Risala (August 21, 2003) titled "Which is Worse Zionism or Nazism?" He quotes such western Holocaust revisionists as the "famous French philosopher Roger Garaudy," British "historian" David Irving, and Austrian author Gerd Honsik, who "was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment because he wrote a number of articles denying the existence of the gas chambers in the Nazi detention camps." Rantisi's article is in the same vein as the writings of Palestinian prime minister Abu Mazen, who wrote his PHD thesis and a book ("The Other Face: the Secret Connection Between the Nazis and the Zionist Movement," 1984) denying the truth of the Holocaust. Dr. Al-Rantisi, one of the BBC's favorite interviewees, writes: "When we compare the Zionists to the Nazis, we insult the Nazis." Interestingly, Dr. Al-Rantisi, also writes: "They [The Jews] have managed to present themselves to the world as the only victims of the Nazis." This is significant because several mainstream western media outlets have lately begun to significantly exaggerate the numbers of homosexuals and Roma (Gypsies) killed in the Holocaust. The New York Times, for example, has twice stated recently that "600,000" Gypsies died in the Holocaust. In fact the highest figure ever given by a serious historian is that "up to 220,000" Gypsies died in the Holocaust. Some historians put the figure at around 100,000. (It is agreed that a total of 32,000 Gypsies died in concentration camps. What is uncertain is the exact figures of Gypsies killed during World War Two in other massacres. The recent efforts to treble the numbers of gypsies killed, which have now found their way into the New York Times, were begun by neo-Nazi groups in Germany in the 1980s, with the specific aim of showing that Jews had exaggerated their "share" of Nazi suffering - TG) Thursday, August 28, 2003
1. I have long suspected that it is the Israel grand strategy to defeat the Palestinians by forcing them to laugh themselves to death. That seems to be the only way to understand the latest resuscitation of the RRH doctrine. The RRH doctrine was invented in the early days of Oslo and stands for REALLY REALLY HARD. The idea was that Israeli governments would give away the farm and kitchen sink and then promise that it did not really matter cause if the Palestinians misbehaved, Israel would hit out at them Really Really Hard. If anyone ever took the RRH threats seriously, by the mid-1990s the RRH was little more than a joke. After each Palestinian atrocity, Netanyahu would threaten RRH and then meow or purr loudly. Then Ehud Barak would threaten RRH, but its implementation consisted of attacking empty Palestinian buildings after Barak had warned the PLO to empty them of humans. Similar RRH strategies were applied towards Syria and the Hizbollah. The bottom line is that no one on earth can keep a straight face any longer when listening to the empty Israeli RRH bravado. Israel has had more than 10 years to implement RRH, and if the best it can come up with is some small hits of Hamas officials, then RRH is next to meaningless. Which brings us to the new rocket attacks by the PLO on Ashkelon. The main effect of the moronic Hudna and Road Map to Suicide adopted by the Beilinized Sharon government was to allow the PLO to upgrade its rockets in its factories in Gaza in the quiet time Israel was granting it from incursions. The new improved Kassam rocket can hit Ashkelon from Gaza and today one did. Sharon and his people responded with a new round of RRH, threatening the PLO with consequences so dire that Arafat and his goons are soiling their nappies in laughter. Let us note that when Israel held military rule over the Gaza Strip, there were no Kassam rockets. Let us also note that the wonderful security fence that surrounds Gaza, and serves as role model for Sharons new fence in the West Bank, has yet to stop a single Kassam rocket. Remember the West Side Story tune about Got a Rocket in yo Pocket play coolly cool boy? The PLO knows what we know, that Sharon is afraid to take the only action that will end the shooting of Kassam rockets into Jewish homes, namely R&D = Re-Occupation and Denazification. Israeli spokesmen said that the rocket shooting at Ashkelon was crossing the Red Line. Now I thought this amusing because the PLO has been shooting these rockets into the Negev town of Sderot for years with no serious Israeli response. SO I guess shooting rockets at Sderot, with its unimportant impoverished religious Moroccan Jews, was NOT crossing any Red Lines. 2. Perhaps almost as funny is the fact that the whole world is having little happy puppy yelps because Arafat has appointed a new security lapdog to carry out his terrorist wishes, none other than Jibril Rajoub. Rajoub has been Arafats Goering for years, and he will start arrested Hamas bombers as soon as pigs become kosher. Anyway I thought you might enjoy a reposting of this older piece: Mister Rajoub's Neighborhood One of the first decisions of the Palestinian Authority was to open its own television broadcasting station. It has now announced that a new educational program will be shown on Palestinian television to celebrate the new era of peace that has broken out since the signing of the Oslo Accords. The new program will be based on the world-famous children's program Mister Roger's Neighborhood. It will star the head of the Palestinian Authority's security forces, Mr. Jibril Rajoub, and will be called Mister Rajoub's Neighborhood. In the pilot show, in walks Mister Rajoub, singing: "It's a wonderful day in this neighborhood, A wonderful day for a neighbor, Won't you be mine, won't you be mine." Mister Rajoub then hangs up his sweater and puts on his slippers. There is a knock at the door and in comes Mister Postman. Mister Rajoub strikes up a conversation with Mister Postman, and asks him to show the children watching how to make letter bombs to mail to the neighbors across the Green Line and to Palestinian "collaborators". After Mister Postman leaves, Handyman Haigerry comes by, always willing to explain how gadgets, gizmos and other things are made. Today Mister Rajoub asks Handyman to demonstrate how to construct a car bomb in which the neighbors can visit some of the other neighborhoods, like Haifa and Jerusalem. Handyman Haigerry makes an especially interesting presentation. "Thank you ever so much, Handyman," says Mister Rajoub when it is time for him to leave. "Oh, just call me The Engineer," replies Handyman. But, hey, what time is it now, boys and girls? Yes, it is storybook puppet time! Mister Rajoub takes all the children in the neighborhood for a ride on Mister Trolley to go see Good King Friday, King of the State of Palestine, who got his name because of his sermons on peace in the mosques on Friday. Today Good King Friday will be explaining to the children of the neighborhood how to make Jihad. He is joined by his friend Lady Ebilene, who is sporting a new royal gown laced with TNT and detonators, just right for travelling to other neighborhoods on Egged buses. Together Mister Rajoub, King Friday, and all their friends break out into song, "Oh you are special, yes so special, everyone is special, in their special way." Mister Rajoub plays the triangle in accompaniment. Alas, it is time to go and say goodbye to the neighborhood. But we can all come back and visit with Mr. Rajoub again tomorrow. Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Open Letter to the Prime Minister of India from Shimon Peres: My heartfelt sympathies to you and the Indian people for the Bombay unrest this week. But we must really speak about how to deal with these atrocities and protests, including the attacks on India, by these misunderstood Islamic activists. Mister Prime Minister, I have a great deal of experience in dealing successfully with terrorism and this is why I wish to come to your rescue. The first thing you must realize is that one can only make peace with oneÕs enemies. With oneÕs friends there is no need to make peace. There is no military solution to the problems of terrorism, and this is why you must seek a diplomatic solution. No Justice, No Peace, as they say. You must invite the leaders of this Islamic organization to Delhi to meet with you and perhaps tour the Taj Mahal. You must learn to feel their pain and understand their needs. You must offer to turn a third of your territory over to them so that these stateless Moslems can have their own state. I have no doubt Pakistan will applaud your efforts. You must meet their demands nearly in full. In addition, you must offer them internet web services and five-star tourist hotels in exchange for his promising to abandon violence. That is how we turned Yassir Arafat into a peace partner. You see, military force serves no role any more. It is passe. It is archaic. Today economic interests dominate the world and the Islamist activists of the earth will surely make peace in exchange for some profits from participating in global trade. The attacks on Bombay came because you have been insufficiently sensitive in understanding the needs of Moslem fundamentalists. You took their rhetoric at face value, whereas WE in Israel know that all this rhetoric is empty and in fact these people simply want peace. Sure they praise Hitler and celebrate atrocities, but what is it that they REALLY want? You must negotiate even while under attack; conditioning negotiations on an end to violence is a no-win situation. It will simply extend the bloodshed! You have been trying to rule over others and failed to be sensitive to The Other. You have illegal settlements that you have yet to remove from Kashmir and Hyderabad and Punjab and Gujarat. You must put your own house in order and eliminate inequality and injustice inside India and then the terrorists will no longer target you. The key is to build a New Middle Asia, one in which everyone is so busy with the important matter of development tourism and investments and hi-technology that they have no time to pursue violence. The era of war is finished. Moreover if you strike at the perpetrators of the Bombay unrest-protests and their supporters, you will simply extend and enlarge the cycle of violence. Your bombs will no doubt injure some innocent children and civilians alongside any terrorist activists you strike, and that will simply enrage the rest of the world and make the victims seek revenge. Your bombing these militants and activists will cause them to hate the Hindus and drive the separatists to embrace terrorism. Moreover, if you refuse to negotiate with the Moslem separatists, then their leader will be toppled and a REALLY violent militant and fanatic will take his place. In that case you will have lost the window of opportunity to make peace. Begin by declaring a unilateral ceasefire! Mister Prime Minister, Blessed is the peacemaker. Remember Mohatma Gandhi but not Rehavam Gandhi. The entire world will support you and congratulate you if you respond to these horrific attacks by disarming India and opening dialogue with the terror activists. All we are saying is give peace a chance. Y itzhak Rabin would have approved. Yes, chaver, what you need is shalom, salaam, peace. You will be cheered and awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in recognition. Do not allow yourself to be drawn into the gutter of violence. Violence never achieves anything. History is no lesson. History is the dead past. End the cycle of violence. Show restraint. Forego the juvenile impulse to avenge. Follow my example!! Provide the Bombay bombers with anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles so that they can battle against the TRUE radicals and fanatics. And they will do so with no ACLU nor Supreme Court to restrain them. Demonstrate your humanity by paying pensions to any widows and orphans of the terrorist who blew up the cars. Mister Prime Minister, the proof is in the pudding. My own peace policies have eliminated war and bloodshed and terror from the Middle East. We no longer have terrorists to deal with in the Levant, only peace partners. If you follow in my footsteps you can achieve the same lofty goals. Peacefully yours, Shimon Peres, Peacemaker-at-Large Sunday, August 24, 2003
As the thousands of browshirt nazis marched in Gaza this week in the funeral for the Hamas terrorist recycled by Israel, while Israel did absolutely nothing to the funeral marchers, I was reminded of this piece: The Summer of 2009 (A Story) by Steven Plaut (back to articles) Monday,Ê23 SeptemberÊ2002, It was a bright, sunny day in the summer of 2009. It was in that period when the monthly death toll from Oslo passed its 1100 mark. The four remaining Knesset Members of the Israeli Labor Party were calling for more goodwill gestures by Israel and concessions to the PLO. Meretz and Peace Now were demanding that Israel seriously consider the latest peace offer from the Palestinians to convert Israel into a web site. Meanwhile, the Americans were demanding that Israel exercise self-restraint after the latest bus bombings. The State Department had just floated a new diplomatic compromise proposal that would involve running the border separating Israel from Palestine down Shenkin Street in Tel Aviv. And it was right after the 1000th Israeli bus was blown to pieces by a Palestinian suicide bomber. The bomber of that 1000th bus had come from the West Bank town of Tul Karem, as the standard videotape of his bravado broadcast on Palestine Television showed. Only three hours after the 1000th bus exploded, 14 well-placed car bombs in Tul Karem exploded in unison. There were dozens of casualties. The death toll from these car bombs reached 49, nearly half of whom were not wanted terrorists. Later that day, a mysterious message was passed on to the BBC's Palestine news desk operating out of Jaffa. The message claimed a group calling itself the ÒTriple TÓ, shorthand for the ÒTerrorize the TerroristsÓ organization, had placed the car bombs there. The news of the car bombings aroused immediate fury from everywhere around the world. The Americans denounced this horrific terrorism as serving as an obstacle to striking a peace deal between Israel and the PLO, one that was just around the corner. The Israeli government insisted it had no knowledge of the perpetrators of the bombings, but did not rule out that they were PLO car bombs meant for Israel that had simply exploded prematurely, and in any case promised to run its own investigation. The PLO and its affiliates in Palestine issued their usual shrieking oaths of vengeance. For ten days, a tense tranquility prevailed. On the 11th day, a Palestinian suicide bomber tried to blow himself up on a Haifa bus, but fortunately the fuse fizzled and the bomb did not go off. Under questioning by the police, it turned out that the would-be bomber came from Nablus. Three hours later central Nablus was shaken by a series of huge explosions. Large bombs that had been planted in garbage containers destroyed the entire market area. The carnage was almost as large as the earlier bombings of Tul Karem. And once again, the mysterious Triple T organization took credit for the blasts. The State Department demanded that Israel take action and find the terrorists responsible for the blasts in Tul Karem and Nablus or face sanctions. In the coming weeks, hundreds of incidents of sniping and shooting at Jews were recorded in the West Bank and Gaza, but -strangely - none of these occurred in Tul Karem or Nablus themselves. In those two towns, the Hamas organized protest marches to demand that Tel Aviv be blown to bits in revenge, but no acts of terrorism were initiated from their environs. Two weeks after the Nablus bombings, the Hamas organized its largest mass rally ever in fields outside of Gaza City. In the midst of the rally, when the Sheikh who leads the Hamas began to speak, the entire field in which the rally was being held exploded in a ball of flame. The fireball was so large that it was visible from space, as photographed by a passing satellite. Body parts were found as far as half a mile away. The scene was horrific. The entire Gaza leadership of the Hamas sitting on the podium was annihilated, and hundreds of rank and file Hamas members were badly injured. And again the shadowy Triple T organization took credit. The Israeli cabinet sent out police patrols to locate the perpetrators of these outrages. The Knesset denounced the 3T terrorists and expressed sympathy or the families of the Palestinian injured. After the Gaza explosion, once again a tense period of tranquility lasting several months transpired. When the Palestinian shootings and snipings reignited later that spring, they were noticeably less intense than previously. But, more significantly, after many cases of snipings at Jews, bombs would almost immediately go off in the Palestinian villages closest to the scene of the shootings or in those from which the snipers had emerged. By the following summer, the rate of Palestinian snipings had dwindled to a trickle. Far more important was the fact that during the entire summer not a single Israeli bus was attacked. While the bombings of Palestinians by the Triple T appeared to have slowed, they did not stop altogether. Various Palestinian figures were blown to pieces when they started their cars or answered their cell phones. Curiously, these included many of the Palestinians who served as spokesmen for the Tanzim and other terror organizations, people whom the world was accustomed to watching on TV denouncing the Jews. The assassination of the spokeswoman for the Tanzim was particularly gruesome. The Americans were still livid at the 3T violations of Palestinian human rights. Israel's government insisted it was doing everything it could to discover the identities of the Triple T terrorists and to apprehend their leaders and members. The Triple T appeared to be too slick and well organized to be easily tracked down. The level of Palestinian violence in 2010 was far lower than it had been the previous summer. It had not dropped to zero, and the bombings of Palestinian markets, cars, and offices after Palestinian-initiated violent incidents continued. When gunmen opened fire on the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, the nearby town of Beit Jala was almost leveled in the largest explosion yet claimed by Triple T. It took weeks to clear the rubble. Meanwhile, other important political changes were taking place. Statisticians noted that while the Palestinian death toll from the Triple T blasts was tragic, and indeed had passed the 410 mark, it appeared that if one were to extrapolate the Jewish death toll from the previous summer, and compare what its trend had been to the numbers actually killed in the past year by Palestinian terrorists, for every Palestinian death 12 Jewish deaths had been prevented!! And even that number was based on the full year; in the last quarter of the year by itself the ratio of saved to killed was 60 to 1. But not all was tranquil. From the Israeli Arab city of Umm al-Fahm there emerged a team of suicide bombers who exploded themselves in downtown Afula, killing many passersby. Three weeks later the Islamic fundamentalist movement held a mass rally in the Umm al-Fahm stadium, under banners declaring that the Jews were threatening the al-Aqsa Mosque, and showing their solidarity with the Palestinian victims of Triple T. The film crews caught the explosion on live camera. The grounds of the entire stadium had been mined and turned into a huge fireball. The injured lay everywhere and 18 were dead. For the next 29 months, there did not occur a single bus bombing and the number of shooting incidents over this entire period in the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip was reduced to a handful. After the last Triple T explosion, a large emigration had begun from Umm al-Fahm and from the West Bank. It was estimated that in many West Bank towns as much as a third of the population had simply left and moved elsewhere, overseas. From Tul Karem the numbers were closer to two thirds. Some Israeli Arab towns and villages within the Green Line lost as much as a third of their populations as well. All of the Israeli Arab Knesset Members from the PLO-surrogate parties and from the communist party had resigned from the parliament following the Umm al-Fahm massacre. For the next two years, there were no Arab members of the Knesset. But three years after the first Triple T explosion, a group of Israeli Arab intellectuals established the Arab Zionist Party. Its basic platform was denunciation of all Palestinian claims to sovereignty, denunciation of all violence, loyalty to the state of Israel, and encouraging of Israeli Arabs to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces. In its first election contest, the party won 3 seats. In its second contest four years later, it won 13 seats, making it the third largest party in the Knesset, following the Ichud Leumi and the National Religious Party (led by the Prime Minister). The AZP initiated a series of proposals for affirmative action preferences that benefit Jews, to compensate them for their historic victimization by Arabs over decades. Changes were also visible across the Green Line. In some Palestinian villages, local vigilante squads rounded up wanted terrorists and delivered them to Israeli army and police stations, occasionally lynching them beforehand. Large posters showing the pilots who had bombed Bin Laden's underground hiding place to smithereens appeared on Palestinian billboards as local heroes. In some places, posters of the two Ghandis - Mohatma and Rehavam, could be seen under the slogan "Our Martyrs". Palestinian schools underwent a remarkable change in curriculum. They now emphasized the moral right of Israel to exist and instructed all Palestinians who were uncomfortable living under the democratic rule of the Jewish majority to move to Detroit or to Kuwait or to New Zealand. A new Palestinian militia arose based in Bethlehem, dedicated to collaborating with the Israeli police and to patrolling the Palestinian streets and arresting anyone promoting violence against Jews. The militia later fielded candidates for mayors of West Bank towns and won about two thirds of all those contested. Teams of Palestinians prayed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and on leaving their prayers they rushed to the gates to invite Jews to join them in praying for peace on the Temple Mount. Groups of Palestinians asked to come to Jewish homes on Jewish holidays to pay their respects and to bring gifts. Among the Palestinians, there was a religious transformation. New pacifist and quietist sects of Moslem Sufis gained popularity. Small numbers of Palestinians converted to Buddhism. Thousands of Palestinians volunteered to serve in the Peace Corps and other volunteer organizations promoting non-violence overseas. Others volunteered to fight in squadrons of American and British military units tracking down Islamist terrorists in other countries. Many Palestinians named their children Schwartzkopf, in honor of the general who had attacked Iraq. Israel also underwent a political transformation. Israeli universities became the centers for the new movement of Post-Post-Zionism, and groups of rowdy students tarred and feathered campus professors who had once supported Oslo. The Jewish History and Bible departments at the universities had to move to larger facilities. Synagogues throughout the country were filled to overflowing. The brand new Museum of Folly, documenting the Oslo years, was now the most popular stop for tourists and Israeli schoolchildren in Jerusalem. While thousands of Palestinians petitioned to be annexed by Israel and made full citizens subject to military conscription, the government of Israel decided to put off the question for now. Meanwhile the out-migration of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza continued, with expatriates selling their homes to some of the 1.5 million Jewish immigrants that had flooded into the country in the past 3 years. Delegations of Jordanian Arabs from the northwestern areas of Jordan, opposite Beit Shean, submitted petitions to the Israeli government to be annexed. Several even offered to convert to Judaism if their homes could be annexed. Israeli flags were raised along the Jordanian side of the Jordan River. The BBC and CNN started showing the Bashan region of Jordan on their maps as Occupied Israeli territory. Along the eastern bank of the Jordan River, choirs of Arab school children chanted, "How Good are Your Tents Oh Jacob", like Bil'am in the Bible. The Israeli economy was booming. A new wing was added to the Museum of Folly to describe the decades of Israeli socialism long since ended, documented for disbelieving school children. A wave of new Hebrew literature, film and drama started the world-wide "Israel Wave". Almost the entire Jewish population of California moved to Israel in order to enjoy the living standards so much higher there. The bankrupt publishers of Haaretz newspaper sold out to new owners, and the new editors made little attempt to hide their admiration for the 3T guerillas. Tikkun Magazine changed its name to Triple T (ikkun), to show its solidarity with the underground. All of France was paralyzed in the annual Honor the Jews parades, organized in large part by Palestinian emigres. The rest of the EU countries sent contingents. Interpol is still hunting the shadowy Triple T organization. Its criminal members were never apprehended. The nations of the world now send delegations to Jerusalem to join in the Succot celebrations, as the Prophet predicted. Friday, August 22, 2003
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/PrinterFull&cid=1061438426685 Euphemism for annihilation, By Efraim Karsh ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Aug. 21, 2003 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Few phrases have epitomized the Palestinian and Arab rejection of Israel's legitimacy more clearly than the "right of return." In their internal discourse, the demand for the return of the 1948 refugees and their descendants to territory now part of the State of Israel, plus their financial compensation for losses and suffering, is invariably equated with the destruction of Israel through demographic subversion. In addressing non-Arab audiences, however, Palestinians have been less than genuine about their objectives, presenting this "right" as humanitarian, as grounded in international law, and as a long-overdue redress of historical injustice. It is hardly surprising therefore that when Nabil Shaath, the PA foreign affairs minister, promised Palestinian refugees in Beirut last weekend that the US road map guaranteed their "right of return" to villages and cities inside Israel, Palestinian officials went out of their way to dismiss this statement as a thoughtless slip of the tongue. "We are trying to resolve the withdrawal from Jericho, and Nabil starts to talk about solving the refugee problem and the right of return," one official said mockingly. "Why did he have to promise them to return to Haifa?" complained another PA source. The timing of Shaath's statement may have been inopportune. At a time when Israel seems willing to repeat the Oslo folly of making unilateral concessions to the PA, it needs to be reassured of Palestinian intentions rather than intimidated. Yet Shaath did little more than reiterate the standard Palestinian position, which had always regarded the "right of return" as an integral part of the Oslo process. Arafat underscored this point in a string of interviews in September 1993, while a PLO report leaked a week after the historic handshake on the White House Lawn by "a source close to Arafat" solemnly stated that "The right of return is an inalienable right that cannot be measured by money. No compensation, however substantial, will be of any value so long as the refugees do not have an independent state on their own land." The PA's guiding principles, published shortly after its establishment in mid-May 1994, pledged "to work for the achievement of the legitimate Palestinian goals: independence, freedom, equality, and the return, through a graduated process." This graduated process was not confined to the "liberation" of the West Bank and Gaza. The document makes extensive use of the language and vocabulary of the PLO's 1974 "phased plan" which stipulated that the Palestinians take whatever territory surrendered to them by Israel, then use it as a springboard for further territorial gains until achieving the "complete liberation of Palestine." It also repeatedly refers to UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of December 11, 1948, widely interpreted by the Arabs as ensuring the Palestinian "right of return." In fact, far from recommending the return of the Palestinian refugees as the only viable solution, the resolution advocated that "the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date," but also that efforts should be made to facilitate the "resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees." Moreover, the PA's guidelines underscored both the "Arabness of Palestine and its being a part of the Arab nation," as well as "the Palestinian and Arab identity of our people in the Galilee, the Triangle, and the Negev" (i.e., within Israel proper). Borrowed directly from the Palestinian Covenant, these phrases effectively reject Israel's very legitimacy by presenting it as a usurper of Palestinian-Arab land and oppressor of the Palestinian nation. WHILE FOR most Western observers the term "occupation" describes Israel's control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, areas that it conquered during the Six-Day war of June 1967, for Palestinians and Arabs the Israeli presence in these territories represents only the latest chapter in an uninterrupted story of "occupations," dating back to the very creation of Israel on "stolen" land. Hence the "right of return" is meant to reverse the effects of the "1948 occupation" - that is, the establishment of the State of Israel itself. While freely spelling out in inter-Arab forums the dire consequences of the "right of return," PLO spokesmen took great care to hide the essence of this "right" from their Israeli interlocutors, not to speak of Western audiences, skilfully evading all requests for clarification. It was only at the Camp David summit of July 2000 that the Israelis were confronted with the full extent of the "right of return" for the first time. "It is not a matter of Jerusalem alone," Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala), the chief Oslo negotiator and speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council said, explaining the reasons for the summit's failure. "The refugee issue is actually more complicated than that of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is deep in the heart of each of us, but the refugee issue is a right claimed by the Palestinian citizen." Some Israelis, however, would not shed their illusions even at this late stage. During the Taba summit of January 2001, four months after the launching of Arafat's terrorist war, Yossi Beilin, the minister of justice in Ehud Barak's cabinet appointed to discuss the refugee problem at the summit, submitted to his Palestinian counterpart, Nabil Shaath, a "non-paper" which effectively recognized the Palestinian "right of return" though "in a manner consistent with the existence of the State of Israel as the homeland for the Jewish people." According to senior Palestinian sources, Beilin also proposed the return of 200,000 Palestinians, but was rejected by Arafat since "the refugees are not a matter for bargaining or trading." And just there, no doubt, lies the crux of the dispute over the "right of return." As starkly demonstrated by Shaath's latest statement, for the Palestinians the "right of return" is not a bargaining chip, it is the heart of the matter. Their adamant insistence on its full implementation, at a time when Israel had effectively agreed to the creation of a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 lines, provides yet another reminder that, in the Palestinian and the Arab perception, peace is not a matter of adjusting borders and territory but rather a euphemism for the annihilation of the Jewish state. In the candid words of Sakhr Habash, the PLO's chief ideologue, at the height of the Camp David summit: "The moment I am given the right of return, I will go back to my village of Beit Dajan as an Israeli citizen. Because it is my dream that the territory called Palestine, between the river and the sea, will revert to its old self - democratic Palestine." The writer is head of Mediterranean studies at King's College, University of London. His book, Arafat's War (published by Grove Atlantic) will be released in October. http://www.afsi.org/OUTPOST/2003JUL-AUG/julaug6.htm (see also http://www.afsi.org/OUTPOST/2003JUL-AUG/julaug5.htm) All the Middle EastÕs a Stage, or ArikÕs Tutu By Steven Plaut Shakespeare said that all the worldÕs a stage, but in fact it is mainly the Middle East which is a stage. It is a performance theater in which everyone is pretending and posturing and acting out parts in skits, prancing across the stage in costume and ballet tutu. Abu Abbas pretends he is really concerned about terrorists blowing up Jewish children and is horrified by that, and then he pretends that he is doing all he can to arrest the Hamas terrorists except Arafat is not letting him or his militia is not large enough. And so the whole world needs to strengthen him and help him build up his power base. Arafat pretends he does not control the tanzim and Al-Aqsa Brigade Nazis and terrorhoids carrying about the atrocities and the whole world pretends they do not know he directly controls and commands them. The Western media pretend they thinks Israelis are mean and brutal and that they are motivated by something other than hatred of Jews. Meanwhile, Ariel Sharon pretends that he is acting to defend Israeli children and Israeli lives. He skirts across the stage in his tutu, on his tiptoes, pretending he is acting with military force against the savages. He conducts empty and meaningless symbolic actions but refuses to choose military victory as a strategy. His government pretends it is conducting negotiations and dialogue with the PLO that are something other than empty stage theatrics. The Israeli army pretends it is serious about battling the terrorists. The United States government pretends it is upset when the terrorists blow up Jewish children or that it thinks Israeli security is a matter of interest or importance. The White House and the State Department pretend that they really believe that creating a Palestinian state will reduce the barbarism of Arabs and result in peace, or that such a state will be used by the Arabs for something other than mass murder and genocide. The Israeli government pretends that it really thinks the Palestinian Authority will Òcrack downÓ the terrorists. The Eurotrash pretend that t he Palestinian Authority has been reformed. The Israeli Labor Party pretends that it was not responsible for turning Israel into the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The American Jewish establishment pretends that it is interested in things other than promoting political liberalism. The Israeli school system pretends it is educating children. So does the Israeli university system, although many professors are full-time propagandists for the PLO. The Israeli army leadership pretends it knows what it is doing. The Israeli intelligence community pretends it discerns new moderation in the Palestinian leadership. Israeli politicians pretend that Abu Mazen is himself not a nazi. and terrorist The United States pretends that Middle East ceasefires obligate the Arabs as well, and pretend that they are unaware that the Palestinians violate them every hour. And everyone pretends there is a Palestinian ÒpeopleÓ. The Israeli Left pretends that it seeks peace, while in reality it seeks a second Holocaust of Jews. Tikkun magazine pretends that Michael Lerner is a Rabbi. (Lerner just sent out one of his long-winded screeds entitled, ÒWhen Will Israel Stop Endangering Jewish Lives?Ó, explaining that Israel is responsible for all of the Arab violations of the ÒHudnaÓ - see below) The western campus Left pretends it is acting under motives other than anti-Jewish bigotry and anti-Americanism. . The Israeli political establishment pretends that there is a serious distinction between the Likud and Meretz. Haaretz pretends it is a newspaper. American officials will pretend they give a ratÕs ass about murdered Jewish babies. Israeli politicians pretend they still believe that demonstrations of Israeli goodwill and weakness and nicesness will induce Arab niceness. They pretend there is something at the end of the ÒRoad MapÓ other than a swastika. And then in a few more days, after all the bus children are in their graves, they will once again pretend that some new ÒceasefireÓ is in earnest this time and will at long last produce reduced violence. Tikkun Screed reprinted here: (sent out a few days ago): Who Is Destroying the Hudna (cease fire)? A few days ago we printed on our website an analysis by Gideon Levy which appeared in Ha'aretz, the Israeli newspaper, showing that Ariel Sharon's provoactive assassination of a Hamas leader (which took place before the so-called ceasefire went into effect Ð SP), together with his construction of the Wall and other acts designed to undermine the Road Map, would ensure a breakdown of the Hudna. Here is a link to that article: http://www.tikkun.org/index.cfm/action/current/article/179.html We hope that you check our website at www.tikkun.org at least every few days, because we continually print there important new articles from Israeli, Palestinian and American sources on Middle East peace, globalization, American politics, etc. The breakdown of the ceasefire and the renewed punishment of the entire Palestinian people for the actions of a few underscores the importance of getting our Resolution for Middle East Peace widely signed and endorsed. (end of Tikkun screed) Wednesday, August 20, 2003
As part of my wanderings this summer I happened upon a town named Provincetown, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. As it turned out, to my innocent surprise, Provincetown is one of those places where one is feels completely out of place walking down the street with a member of the opposite gender or with oneÕs offspring. It seems to be the capital for gays and not just the quiet withdrawn type, but rather the sort of Òflaming fruitsÓ who walk down the street in drag and where drag queen bars outnumber the Seven Elevens. And as it turned out, the very shabbas I spent there, Provincetown was hosting a conference of Ògay, lesbian and transgendered JewsÓ. Y skin should stop crawling by Rosh Hashana. Now for those of you outside the bastions of PC wackiness, you may not be aware of the fact that ÒtransgenderedÓ is the latest ÒcommunityÓ in possession of ÒrightsÓ, and as far as I can tell they are transvestites and drag queens, but may also include those people like Israeli pop singer ÒDana InternationalÓ, those with surgical reorder south of the border. The details of this assembly of such people are at http://www.glbtjews.org/provincetown/. Now, if I am not mistaken, this was just one of the series of similar assemblies of Jews financed by Charles Bronfman, scion of the Bronfman booze empire, and its charity institutions. Apparently Bronfman has decided that what with peace having broken out in the Middle East and Diaspora assimilation under control, promoting homosexuality should be at the top of the Jewish agenda. The BronfmanÕs have long been serious financiers for the gay militants (see http://dianedew.com/gaylesb.htm). The Bronfman Center at NYU, probably the largest Bronfman campus institution, and other smaller Bronfman centers on other campuses, have long been active in promoting the militant homosexual agenda. Or consider: Queer Urban Retreat (New York City) The Bronfman Center's Queer Urban Retreat will take place on Halloween weekend, Friday October 31st-November 2nd 2003. The two and a half day event will consist of workshops, break-out sessions, and cultural presentations that serve to enrich individual understandings of Jewish and Queer identities. Workshops will include skill building and leadership training for Queer students as well as explorations of religious and queer identities and guides for increasing sensitivity and diversity at Hillels and other Jewish organizations. Students who attend will be offered home-stay with local NYU students and accommodations will be made for religious participants, and participants with differing gender presentations/identity. Participants will also have the opportunity to experience the one of a kind phenomenon that is the Village Halloween Parade. All students, regardless of sexual orientation or religious identity are encouraged to attend. For more information contact Mike Brown at mgb247@nyu.edu. http://www.nyu.edu/bronfman/buttons/queerurbanretreat.php Now as you know, I happen to believe that gay people are as entitled to our sympathy and pity as all other people suffering from behavioral disorders. I support George W. in opposing creating any sort of legal acknowledgement of gay ÒmarriagesÓ, although I can live with forms of private contracting such as gay folks leaving their property in wills or sharing their pensions with their partners if they so wish. I utterly oppose gay couples adopting children and think it should be criminalized. And I have long wondered about some things. I would love to hear how Bronfman and similar people would answer these: + If a form of mental illness, personality disorder, or behavioral disorder is rather common, say Ð afflicting as many as 1% of the population, does that mean it stops being a disorder? + If people suffering from a behavioral disorder say they like having it and do not wish to be ÒcuredÓ of it, does that mean it no longer is one? + When the psych profession is brow-beaten into taking a disorder off its lists of disorders, does that mean we should all acknowledge it as ÒnormalÓ? + Why should homosexuality be accepted as something Ònormal and healthy, but not bestiality and necrophilia? + If gays should be funded to hold Gay Pride parades and events, why should not those suffering from other behavioral disorders and afflictions? Why not hold a Jews Mental Illness Pride Parade each spring in NYC, with Bronfman money paying for it? Oh, and for those seeking to lose their breakfasts, take a look at http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/index.cfm/action/tikkun/issue/tik0109/article/010953.html and http://gaytoday.com/reviews/092302re.asp The Oslo Appease Process is misnamed. So is the Road Map. They are nothing new. Indeed, the correct name for them is the Cult of Moloch. Anyone with any doubts should just look at this eveningÕs news and the latest mass murder for peace. The Cult of Moloch has ruled Israel since 1992 under both Labor and Likud governments. There are repeated references in the Bible to the Cult of Moloch or Molokh, a Canaanite or perhaps Phoenician Cult. According to Deut., xii, 29-31; xviii, 9-14, the passing of children through fire was of Canaanite origin [cf. IV (II) Kings, xvi, 3]. The chief feature of Moloch's worship seems to have been the sacrifice of children, and the usual expression for describing that sacrifice was "to pass through the fire", a rite carried out after the victims had been put to death. The Cathaginians, descendents of Phoenicians and worshipers of Baal, appear to have adopted the child sacrifice. The passages of the original text in which the name stands probably for that of a god are Lev., xviii, 21; xx, 2-5; III (A. V. I) Kings, xi, 7; IV (II) Kings, xxiii, 10; Is., xxx, 33; lvii, 9; Jer., xxxii, 35. The special centre of such atrocities was just outside of Jerusalem, at a place called Tophet (probably "place of abomination"), in the Valley of Gehenom. According to III (I) Kings, xi, 7, Solomon erected "a temple" for Moloch "on the hill over against Jerusalem", and on this account he is at times considered as the monarch who introduced the cult into Israel. The custom of causing one's children to pass through the fire seems to have been general in the Northern Kingdom [IV (II) Kings, xvii, 17; Ezech. xxiii, 37], and it gradually grew in the Southern, encouraged by the royal example of Achaz (IV Kings, xvi, 3) and Manasses [IV (II) Kings, xvi, 6] till it became prevalent in the time of the prophet Jeremias (Jerem. xxxii, 35), when King Josias suppressed the worship of Moloch and defiled Tophet [IV (II) Kings, xxiii, 13 (10)]. The offerings by fire, the probable identity of Moloch with Baal, and the fact that in Assyria and Babylonia Malik, and at Palmyra Malach-bel, were sun-gods, have suggested to many that Moloch was a fire- or sun-god. There is no Jewish state in the Middle East. Instead there is a Canaanite state with superficial Jewish trappings, ruled by rulers practicing the rites of Moloch. The practitioners and believers in the Cult of Moloch respond to each atrocity by pretending to strike new agreements with the murdering Islamofascists of the PLO. These respond to each such goodwill gesture with new atrocities. They are always ever so surprised that the latest ÒceasefireÓ has been blown to smithereens on the Jerusalem bus. They are astounded that the PLOÕs pledge to keep its eye on terrorists but not arrest them has resulted in more than a score dead Israelis, including children on the Jerusalem bus. They are amazed that IsraelÕs releasing hundreds of terrorists did not result in tranquility but in new mass murders, carried out by terrorists from the PLO-controlled area in Hebron. They are astonished that new demonstrations of Israeli weakness and defeatism and capitulation have produced new barbarism. And the one thing of which we can all be certain is that after a few days, when this round's children are in their graves, the prophets of Moloch, especially the Canaanite pagan political Left in Israel, joined in short order by the Beilinized party of Ariel Sharon, will once again insist that the only solution is more sacrifices of children to the pagan peace god, more passing of children through fire, more human sacrifices for the delusion of peace. For what choice is there? Tuesday, August 19, 2003
The Fight Over Daniel Pipes By Wall Street Journal Wall Street Journal | August 19, 2003 In fighting the war on terror, it would be nice to think there is a role for one of the few U.S. scholars to warn of the danger from militant Islam in advance of September 11. Instead, the nomination of Mideast scholar Daniel Pipes to the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace has turned into one of the nastier confirmation battles of the Bush Presidency. Bear in mind this is not a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. It's a position at a relatively obscure government think tank for a term of four years. The Institute of Peace was set up by Congress in 1984 to research non-military solutions to world conflicts and has earned a reputation as politically centrist, not to mention occasionally as a political sinecure. Mr. Pipes would be much more than a time-server. He is founder and director of the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia. He's taught at Harvard, the University of Chicago and the Naval War College. He is the author of a dozen books, several on Islam. He runs a useful Web site -- www.Memri.org -- that posts English-language translations of the Arabic-language press. (Yesterday's offering: "Al-Qa'ida Claims Responsibility for Last Week's Blackout.") For years Mr. Pipes has been raising the alarm about Islamic terrorist organizations operating in the U.S. -- including in an article with Steven Emerson for this page on August 13, 2001. After 9/11 he made the obvious point that the best hiding place for radical Muslims in the U.S. would be in moderate Muslim communities and in mosques. He favors "profiling," which is to say paying more attention at airports to young Arab men than to American grandmothers. If the polls are correct, most Americans agree with him. For these insights, Mr. Pipes is now being dubbed a "racist" and a "bigot" -- the equivalent of appointing former Ku Klux Klan figure David Duke to a civil rights position, as one opposition group analogized last week. The Council on American-Islamic Relations is leading the charge, calling Mr. Pipe's appointment "a slap in the face to all those who seek to build bridges of understanding between people of faith." Anyone who's read Mr. Pipes's work knows such accusations are absurd. Yes, he has a point of view, which he expresses vigorously and with which we sometimes disagree. But he has repeatedly stated that radical Islam, not Islam itself, is the threat. As he's said, in a line oft-quoted by his supporters, "Militant Islam is the problem, and moderate Islam is the solution." Leading the charge against Mr. Pipes in the Senate is Ted Kennedy, aided by Democrats Tom Harkin and Chris Dodd and their fellow-traveler Jim Jeffords. A committee vote on the nomination was postponed last month after Senator Kennedy rose to attack him. President Bush is now reported to be planning to bypass the Senate and give Mr. Pipes a recess appointment while Congress is on vacation. This would allow Mr. Pipes to serve until the end of next year. This is a good idea. The subtext of the Pipes confirmation battle is the conflict between two views of how to defeat terrorists. The pro-Pipes side believes they have to be confronted and defeated; the folks opposing him believe they can be mollified and co-opted. Appointing Mr. Pipes would send an important signal about which side is running U.S. foreign policy. Back when I was a nipper in summer camp, we used to sing a campfire song. It was a bit raunchy but I bring it to you here, for reasons you will see. It went like this. To the tune of Glory Glory Hallelujah, we sang a series of verses, each one word shorter than the one before it. Here is the list (would be one round for each): Oh Sir Jasper Do Not Touch Me (repeated)É Oh Sir Jasper Do Not Touch Oh Sir Jasper Do Not Oh Sir Jasper, DO! Oh Sir Jasper!! Oh Sir!!! OHHHHH!!!! Ok, if you have stopped your heavy breathing, I can get to the point. I believe that the Oslo Òpeace processÓ and its Road Map are simply updated versions of the Sir Jasper song. Let me explain. Like the Sir Jasper song, the Road Map consists of dropping off the ending of sentences, one at a time, until all one is left with is the OOOHHHHHH. In the beginning the Oslo Peace Process was supposedly about making peace and ending violence. SO the dialogue and Israeli concessions were based on reciprocity and a total ceasefire and halt to all Palestinian atrocities. It was based on Palestinian democratization, rhetoric devotions to non-violence expressed daily by the PLO, economic cooperation, and renunciations of fascist xenophobia and anti-Semitism by the Palestinians. It was based on altering those nazi textbooks used by the PLO, altering the Palestinian Covenant, arresting terrorists, extraditing them to Israel, military and intelligence sharing by the PLO, disarming Islamist groups, It was based on explicit renunciation of the so-called ÒRight of ReturnÓ by the PLO, explicit acknowledgement of IsraelÕs legitimacy as a sovereign Jewish State. It was based on the expectation that the PLO would announce to the world that in exchange for its being recognized and legitimized by Israel, the Arab-Israel conflict was over as far as it was concerned. But all of this was followed by a long series of lopping off the last clauses to the going version of what obligated the PLO. The PLO was just kidding about abandoning its ÒCovenantÓ and ÒjihadÓ? Oh Sir Jasper Do Not Touch me. The PLO had no intention of extraditing terrorists from Hamas and Jihad? Oh Sir Jasper Do Not. The PLO would not end the anti-Jewish incitement and nazi textbooks and if anything would escalate their use? The PLO would glorify suicide bombers and teach murder to summer camping children? The PLO would continue to demand the ÒRight of ReturnÓ and IsraelÕs destruction? Oh Sir Jasper Do! The PLOÕs own al-Aqsa brigades and tanzim would become the main murdering and terror organizations under ArafatÕs direct control and command? The PLO would never arrest anyone for terrorist atrocities but instead glorify them and celebrate them? It would import countless tons of missiles and produce rockets it would shoot regularly into Jewish homes? It would destroy JosephÕs Tomb and turn RachaelÕs Tomb into a battleground? It would praise Saddam and call for chemical annihilation of the Jews? It would select a Nazi Holocaust Denier as its ÒPrime MinisterÓ as the entire set of ÒreformsÓ of the Palestinian Authority? Oh Sir Jasper! And when the PLO would announce that it was not even going to arrest any of the Hamas and Jihad terrorists in exchange for Israel releasing hundreds of murdering terrorists this week? Oh Sir! And in the face of these, after each and every shortening of the song phrase, after each and every violation and atrocity by the PLO, after each new proof that the PLO had no intentions of complying with ANYTHING, that the best Israel could hope for is buying a few weeks of reduced bloodletting with only a few Jewish children and other living things being murdered each day in exchange for new appeasements, where the PLO itself would continue to launch most of the terrorist atrocities at the same time that it was being appeased, where there are daily proofs that the only reason the Palestinians want a ÒstateÓ is as a launch pad to attack Israel and murder Jews, where Israel GOES AHEAD AND RELEASES HUNDREDS OF TERRORISTS EVEN AFTER THE PLO HAS ANNOUNCED IT WOULD DO NOTHING BUT ÒKEEP AN EYE ONÓ REGARDING HAMAS AND JIHAD TERRORISTS,É.. Even THEN the Beilinized government of Ariel Sharon proceeds with the appeasements of the Appease Process, rewarding the PLO for its savagery and barbarism, promising to strive for a Palestinian ÒstateÓ whose raison dÕetre will be IsraelÕs destruction, never conditioning a single appeasement by Israel on PLO compliance with anything, agreeing to new unilateral ceasefires, displaying cowardice when the Hizbollah shells Israel, turning the other cheek when the PLO fires rockets into Sderot, glad handing and male bonding with Abu Mazen, pretending that the Palestinian Authority has been reformed and granting it new legitimzation in the world, re-proving over and over again that Israel seeks to achieve peace through cowardice and weakness, that Israel has lost its will to survive and resist. OHHHHH OOOOHHHHH! Friday, August 08, 2003
(I am on the road still, but you may enjoy this) http://www.jewishpress.com/news_article.asp?article=2714 Middle East Orwellism Posted 8/6/2003 By Steven Plaut It is just one more of those unpleasant facts of life that the anti-Israel lobbies of the planet have no real interest in the well being of the Palestinians, but are merely motivated by hostility to Jews. It is another unpleasant fact that those protesting their support for the Palestinians are merely seeking the destruction of Israel. Welcome to the wonderful world of Middle East Orwellism. It took September 11 to force the Western world to confront the realities of the Middle East, and as part of this, the prevalence of Orwellism in that part of the world. In the Middle East, words often mean their opposite, causes and effects are generally reversed, victims are generally blamed and aggressors whine about their victimization. The same pattern is increasingly characteristic of the Israel-bashing choruses in the Western media and elsewhere. In the aftermath of September 11, Americans were treated to daily lectures by demagogues from the Arab world about U.S. culpability in the ?oppression? of the Palestinians. Spokesmen for the most barbaric and oppressive regimes on earth lectured the West about its "insensitivity" and immorality. Supporters of terrorism argued with a straight face that the attacks on New York and Washington were the work a Jewish cabal. Israel, of course, has had to deal with the Orwellism of the Middle East all along. It has long listened to the reversal-of-cause-and-effect homilies coming from the Arab world, under which Israeli retaliations for barbaric terrorist attacks against its civilians are "aggression," while those very attacks themselves are "protests" by frustrated "activists" and "victims." Israel has also been lectured by the Western armchair peacemakers about how its settlements are the cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict, whereas they are in fact its consequences. Israelis are told that their "occupation" of the West Bank and Gaza Strip caused Arab hatred and resentment, whereas their occupation was in fact the consequence of that hatred and resentment. In the Middle East`s Orwellisms, victims are turned into aggressors, savages and barbarians are painted as victims, imperialists and warmongers are declared moderates, defense is aggression, offense is defense, democrats are denounced as imperialists, dictators are lauded as democrats, and there are no problems on the planet that could not be resolved through the destruction of Israel. The anti-Israel lobby demonstrably puts on display its recreational compassion for the "suffering Palestinians." In fact, it has no interest at all in any Arab suffering unless it can somehow be used as a bludgeon to delegitimize Israel. The simple fact of the matter is that Arabs living under Israeli rule are the only Arabs in the Middle East who are not brutally oppressed by their rulers. They are the best-treated political minority in the Middle East. They are the only ones living under some semblance of the rule of law, the only ones enjoying basic freedoms, the only ones who can vote, the only ones protected by due process, and the only ones not subject to summary execution and mass murder when challenging their regime. The Middle East is the planet`s best illustration of Moynihan`s Law, which posits that the degree of oppression of any people is in inverse proportion to the cries of oppression one hears from them. The only government in the Middle East that does not indiscriminately shoot Arabs who criticize it is that of Israel. But Middle East Orwellism has been swelling, especially in Europe and in liberal circles in the United States. The rank hypocrisy staggers the objective mind: The Israel-bashers claim they believe in enlightened government and progress -- but overlook Arab fascism and are silent when Algeria or Sudan massacres its civilians. The Israel-bashers claim they believe in peace -- but support all forms of military aggression against Israel and think such aggression must be rewarded. The Israel-bashers claim they believe in democracy -- but feel that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that must be dismembered and destroyed. The Israel-bashers claim they believe in basic freedoms -- but back the likes of Arafat, Mubarak, the Saudis and the Assads. The Israel-bashers claim they oppose violence -- but "understand" Palestinian terrorism. The Israel-bashers claim they believe in human rights -- but not in Arab countries. The Israel-bashers claim they believe in freedom -- but are not disturbed that slavery still exists in Sudan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere among Arabs. The Israel-bashers claim they believe in freedom to practice religion freely in the Middle East -- but of course only for Muslims. The Israel-bashers claim they believe in progress and enlightenment -- but endorse concessions to those preaching jihad, medieval blood libels, and Holocaust denial. The Israel-bashers claim they believe in progress, but Arab societies should never be expected to progress beyond 13th century feudalism. The Israel-bashers claim they believe in honest government -- but have nothing to say about Arab kleptocracies. The Israel-bashers claim they believe that human rights of Arabs must be protected -- but not in Arab countries. The Israel-bashers claim they oppose the use of torture -- except when practiced by the Palestinian Authority or other progressive Arabs. In fact, the only "human right" the Israel-bashers really think Palestinians need is the right to attack Jews and destroy Israel. Steven Plaut is a professor at Haifa University. His book ?The Scout? is available at Amzon.com. He can be contacted at steven_plaut@yahoo.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|