Tundra Tabloids Extra

SHEIK DELIVERS FATWA TO FINNISH MUSLIMS TO LEAVE FINLAND.......

2010-05-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

We are a Muslim community of 35 000 to 40 000 members including all different sects. The people who make statistics do not make a difference between a Shiite, bahaa’i, Habashi and a Sunni! These Muslims are assimilated in a Christian country of around five million citizens. Even the flag of the country presents the symbol of Christianity, which is the cross. During these last months one group of recently converted Muslims (Sunnis) formed a political party and as their goals they have e.g. trying to stop selling alcohol in the shops, and they went even further to claim that they want to establish sharee’ah in this Christian country! It has to be taken in consideration that the Muslims do not have even their complete usual rights like own graveyard, right to do ritual sacrificing of animals and so on!

Before we had a graveyard but it became full and because some errors had been committed in its handling additionally there is also some differing between the parties who will take charge of it, the authorities profited from all of that and made it difficult for us to have a new graveyard!

So now if some one dies, he is buried in the same graveyard with the Christians and atheists!!! These recently converted Muslims try to be united between each other and to be far from the qabaliyyah and hizbiyyah of the Somalis, and far from the “talks of the Arabs and their assimilation”.

Now the media is focusing on Islam and Muslims here in a negative way by bringing up subjects as: - Divorce is in the hand of the man and the women can not get her complete rights and be free in Islam if she does not want to stay married to her husband… -

Corporal punishment of children in homes (because it is a crime in this country if you slap your children) - Muslim families try to isolate their children from the society and not let them to participate in swimming hours (boys and girls together) and attending the music hours… - And whether Muslims would like to follow Islamic law or the law of the country.

The goal of the media is to distort the image of Islam and to grow hatred in the chests of the common people for they will hate Islam and Muslims: common people usually complain that we are taking their money and enjoying their services and now they will add to that the claim that we would like to apply here Sharee’ah which we do not even apply in our home countries!

And among the Muslims those who practise their religion are a minority while the majority has become assimilated!!! The media and the researchers base their research results on the opinions of every Tom, Dick and Harry i.e. every common ignorant person is qualified to answer. Especially when the most of people nowadays are just running after fame and worldly gains and are enough fed up with their origin and their home countries which neglect their rights and do not appreciate them as citizens.

So the appreciation of non-Muslims can make them to take whatever steps … even we heard some who gave up Islam for Christianity! When the head of this group that formed the political party was advised concerning the steps that he is taking, he merely answered that he is trying to get publicity to Islam… (this person was active in politics already in his youth). Now we ask from you to give a general advice to the Muslims in this country and especially to these recently converted Muslims, and to remind us all of our duty in a non-Muslim society and towards its citizens and authorities and to draw for us our limits for we will not be as a hammer that will be used to destroy our own homes or at least not to be a cause to stop even these few rights we enjoy because not everyone has got the possibility to emigrate to an Islamic country.

Please if you need more details about the subject you can contact us and we will be pleased to give you more detailed information. I wish to get a quick answer still when there is time to lock doors of evil and before it is too late! Wa jazaakumullaah khayran! There can be some mistakes in our expressions and you are allowed to drop such things that do not fit da’wah and to shape it in the way that you want. The thing that concerns us is to get a complete advice.

Praise be to Allaah.

We have read more about the country – Finland – in which you are living; some of it saddened us, but other things made us happy. We are saddened by the division that there is among you, and by the fact that many neglect to call people to Allaah or pay attention to their families and children. We are also saddened to learn that some Muslim women have married Christian men in that country, as these are invalid marriages; and that many people have failed to obey Allaah and adhere to His religion. All of that makes the burden of the people of knowledge and goodness even greater, and lays upon them a huge responsibility towards the Muslim community in that European land.

But what made us happy is the news that the number of Muslims in that country is increasing, and the Muslim community is now one hundred thousand strong, according to some reports, although we do not know how many of them are Sunnis. And we are happy to learn that many of the people of that country have entered the religion of Allaah.

What we advise you, and we hope that our words will have a good effect on your hearts and actions:

1.
First and foremost, every Muslim should try to return to his homeland, and those who have become Muslim should move to a Muslim country where they can practise their religion safely. They should leave that country where the religious commitment, minds and hearts of many Muslims have been corrupted, whenever they are able to do so.

2.
Those who cannot leave or who do not want to should fear Allaah with regard to themselves and the members of their household; they should advise them sincerely and take good care of them, and protect themselves and their families from the Fire of Allaah.

3.
You must strive to establish study circles for learning Qur’aan and (Islamic) knowledge, in which the ignorant may be taught and the young Muslims (?) may learn to obey Allaah. It is not permissible for you to be careless about this matter. We have read how the Tatars in Finland preserved their language and culture; your Islam and Arabic language are more important and you must take great care of them in your daily lives.

4.
Try to invite scholars and seekers of knowledge to come to you, so that they can undertake the duties of calling people to Islam, exhorting, guiding and teaching. Such meetings will play a part in uniting you and helping you adhere to the rulings of sharee’ah which have to do with the realities of your lives.

5.
Do not leave any room for the devils among mankind and the jinn to cause division in your ranks and spread disunity among you. You have to be aware that you are living in a Christian society, a Christian country, whose flag bears the cross! You have to remember that what happens between Muslims who have differences is not like your differences with other religions. The difference between Muslims who pray in the same direction (ahl al-qiblah) is may be a difference between Sunnah and bid’ah, and in some cases it may be the difference between a correct view and a less correct view, but the difference between you and the other religions is the difference between Islam and kufr. These are two different issues.

6.
With regard to this party that is trying to establish an Islamic state in Finland, they should think on the basis of reason and not emotion; they should look at reality and not turn a blind eye to it. You cannot even bury a Muslim in a graveyard that is just for Muslims, so would you be able to close liquor stores and establish an Islamic state there?!

What is this, O slaves of Allaah?! This is imaginary dreams and farfetched thinking, which may be excused in a man who does not know the reality of where you live and does not know anything about the difficulties that you face. But a man who sees what you see and knows what you know should think soundly on the basis of fitrah, sharee’ah and reason, and his efforts should be aimed at achieving whatever he is most able to of the Muslims’ interests in your country, and warding off whatever evils, harm and oppression he can.

Based on that, if those people have an Islamic party, they should invest their efforts in establishing Islamic institutions, schools, Muslim graveyards, and stop thinking about establishing an Islamic state, because in fact that is virtually impossible and is just an illusion, based on what we have seen of the Muslims’ inability to achieve that, even in their own countries, so how can they do it in a non-Muslim country? Just demanding an Islamic state will bring evil consequences such as only Allaah knows, so how about if they took practical steps towards it?

If the state is unable to stop them – which is not the case – then let them imagine their fate if the European Union were to get involved in stopping that. What would be the fate of all the efforts that have been made for decades? We have read about the situation of Muslim men and women in your country after September 11th, so how about if the anti-Islam establishments were to spread the idea that the Muslims only want to rule in order to apply Islam and limit freedoms and oppress women? Yes, they are exaggerating and lying, but we are giving them the ammunition that they are throwing in our faces.

7.
One of the priorities of that Islamic party should be to preserve Islamic identity and strive to spread the message of Islam, free of distortions; they should present it to the Muslims so as to bring them back to commitment and righteousness, and you should prove to non-Muslims that your religion is a religion of unity, brotherhood and cooperation in righteousness and piety.

8.
The Muslim brothers who are of that land should continue to call people to Allaah among their families and relatives, and tell others of the joy they have found by entering Islam. It seems that they will have more impact on the people of that land than Muslims who have migrated from other countries.

9.
Strive to buy a piece of land as soon as possible to be used for graves for Muslims who believe in Tawheed (the oneness of Allaah), and try to move the Muslims who were buried with non-Muslims to these Islamic graves.

10.
It should be a priority of Islamic groups and political parties, especially those that are trying to establish an Islamic state, as we said, to preserve the identity of the Muslims who are living there. One of the most important means of preserving their identity is for Muslim men to marry Muslim women and to strive to create an Islamic atmosphere in their social lives. In the Islamic parties and organizations there should be people who direct the Muslims’ private matters such as marriage, divorce and social relationships in accordance with the laws of Allaah, without trying to impose that on everyone in the Christian country which, as we have said, is a very farfetched idea, the consequences of which will be bad for you.

11.
We advise everyone to be gentle in calling people to Allaah and to follow the way of the Prophets and Messengers and successful daa’iyahs. You should direct your da’wah to leaders, politicians, decision makers, journalists, writers and all classes of people. Perhaps Allaah will guide one of them who will become very influential. And strive to remove evils from the lives of Muslims in the way that is best.

12.
You should always be in contact with your Muslim brothers in Europe and in the Muslim world, so that you can consult them about your affairs and ask the scholars about issues and problems that you are facing. The Muslim is the mirror of his brother, and two brothers together are stronger than one on his own.

And Allaah knows best.

Islam Q&A

David Littman addresses the UNHRC on Jewish refugees from Muslim Lands

2010-03-27T07:10:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, 23 March 2010

Human Rights Council

Thirteenth session

9:00 - 12:00 - 36th Plenary Meeting

3/27/10 8:24:09 AM World Union for Progressive Judaism

SPEECH BY MANFRED GERSTENFELD: NORWAY'S ATTITUDES TOWARD ISRAEL AND THE JEWS.......

2009-11-20T03:51:00.000-08:00

Continued..... from here

In my book Behind the Humanitarian Mask: The Nordic Countries, Israel and the Jews, there is an article by Odd Sverre Hove, the editor of the small Norwegian Christian daily Dagen, who analyzes how the state TV station NRK systematically manipulated the news from Israel in the first days of the second intifada in 2000.

There are only two TV stations in Norway: the state NRK and the commercial station TV2. The latter has hosted the infamous comedian Jespersen who said that he commiserated with the lice and fleas who made the bad choice of going onto the bodies of Jews in concentration camps. Worse still is that these remarks were considered acceptable by the director of the TV2 station.

That same station TV2 paid for the Holocaust denier David Irving to come to Norway this year and had him interviewed for more than a quarter of an hour by one of its journalists who showed hardly any knowledge of the Holocaust.

I can tell you from my own experience that the TV2 people are major falsifiers of what a person says and the National Telegraph Bureau, which is the main provider of foreign news to the 300 Norwegian papers, is hardly any better. The situation is one of a mixture of manipulation and a widespread very low level of journalistic professionalism in Norway.

No Level Playing Field

Let me make this clear. Norway is a democratic country – it is not the Soviet Union under Communist rule. It is not that the ruling parties rigidly promote only anti-Israel hate. But once you promote hatred this overshadows everything else you do. There is no state sponsored anti-Semitism in Norway. The government however supports a reality which is conducive to anti-Semitism. This means that in Norway there is no real possibility for a battle of ideas. For that you need a level playing field, and that level playing field does not exist in Norway.

The reasons why there is no level playing field in Norway are many: Thete is this hard core extreme left elite, others are socialists who have a tendency to show solidarity with the weak. This includes whitewashing those weak people who are extreme criminals, such as genocidal Muslims. Added to this is the fact that there are no checks and balances resulting from foreign newspapers reporting on the Norwegian realities. That is also why there is so little selfcriticism in the country.

The situation is complicated by other factors. First is that with the immigration of a large number of Muslims into Norway, a number of extreme criminal anti-Semites have entered the country. This became evident in the riots during the Gaza campaign which, according to the police, were the most severe Oslo had seen in decades. Shops were burned on Oslo’s main street. Today the extreme anti-Semitic Muslims in Norway probably outnumber the 700 members of the Jewish community. (Slide 4)

Furthermore, there is a long tradition of anti-Semitism in the country. It is not true that what one sees in Norway is pure anti-Israelism, which has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. Minister Halvorsen however did not leave the anti-Israel demonstration when there were shouts of “Death to the Jews.”

Another Obsession: No anti-Semitism

Besides the obsession with Israel, there is another obsession in Norway which concerns the Jewish people. That is the obsessive way in which one is told by many Norwegians that there is no anti-Semitism in Norway.

Because of that lack of anti-Semitism two of the three Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated in the last five years, the synagogue has been shot at in 2006, the cantor has been attacked on Oslo’s main street. Jewish children in schools have been harassed. Some Jews have received death threats. The community, the school and the old age home need heavy security. All these signs of lack of anti-Semitism show that Norwegian Jews are in a position which is typical of all other Norwegians.

There is nothing many Norwegians are more sensitive to than being reminded of Quisling, the war-time Norwegian prime minister whose name has become the expression of the archetype of a traitor in English and many other languages. It was not the German occupiers who arrested the Jews, but the Norwegian collaborators. They handed the Jews over to the Germans, to be sent to their death.

We are always told that Quisling had only limited support in the country. This is true as far as the elections are concerned, but the number of anti-Semites was far larger. A great majority of parliamentarians had voted to prohibit Jewish ritual slaughter already in 1929. In Germany this happened only when the Nazis came to power in 1933. A false claim is that the Norwegian prohibition derived from their concern for animals. If so, they should have long ago prohibited hunting and the killing of whales, which until today is still allowed in Norway.

Oil and Gas

Norway was an insignificant country until large quantities of oil and gas were found there. Prior to that, fishing and farming were its main activities. Today you might say that the country specializes in fish, oil and gas; one of my acquaintances has said that, to this, you have to add boredom.

The wealth gained from oil and gas has enabled the Norwegian government to build a new mythology. Norway may be small in population, but it is great in charitable, humanitarian aid. This is what I call Norway’s “humanitarian mask.” As Gerald Steinberg and Yael Beck show in an article in my upcoming book in Norwegian, under the heading “humanitarian aid” Norway provides substantial funds to Palestinian and other NGOs which incite against Israel.

The same wealth also gives the Norwegian government the feeling that it can criticize Israel, while at the same time being silent or soft on the endless crimes in the Arab world. To a certain extent, such an attitude contradicts one of the basic characteristics which Norway claims for itself : the so-called Jante Law. This law says that you should not think that you are better than someone else. The Norwegian government however thinks that it is better than Israel and can thus teach Israel some lessons. You might put it this way: to a certain extent, part of all that gas has gone to their heads.

Should Norway teach Israel lessons? The former commander of the Norwegian army General Robert Mood, is now based in Jerusalem, as part of a United Nations mission. In 2008, he said that the Norwegian army’s current capability is that it cannot defend the country, but it could defend one neighborhood in Oslo. I also read in Aftenposten that the Norwegians are only now investigating major war crimes by Norwegians in a prisoner camp during the Second World War,

The Jewish Community

Before I come to the most recent events, a few words about the Jewish community: In a country where you have two or three Jews at most among every 10,000 citizens, they of course play no role. But, the Jews in Norway play symbolic roles. When there are accusations of anti-Semitism, the Jewish community is supposed to say that it isn’t so bad.

In this way they have the symbolic role of whitewashers of the country’s misbehavior. In my recent essay, which is available here, I quote a number of examples of Norwegian Jews who, on various occasions, have said that the situation isn’t so great as far as anti-Semitism is concerned. And even the head of the Oslo Jewish community, a significant whitewasher has said on various occasions that the situation is problematic. This is the essence of the Diaspora existence in such a country. As one lives as a Jew in Norway and make his living there, one must promote the image of the country even if that means twisting the truth.

Elbit

Let me now conclude with short observations of the two most recent discriminatory events: The first one is the Elbit story. Out of so called ethical considerations, the large Norwegian pension fund disinvested from Elbit. The same pension fund however has no ethical problems with investing in companies which mine phosphate in the disputed Western Sahara. The local population there sees this as robbing their natural resources.

The Norwegian state-controlled Statoil Company is trying to get into Turkmenistan, one of the least democratic countries in the world. Statoil also is invested in a project of oil from oil sand in Alberta in Canada where it will destroy a forest the size of England. Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre says that the decision to divest from Elbit had nothing to do with the Norwegian government but is the decision of a private fund.

I always have the feeling that the difference between some Norwegian politicians and politicians- in other countries is that, when these Norwegians twist the truth, they do it more transparently. If it were a private pension fund, why was the decision announced by Minister Halvorsen?

The NTNU Affair

The other recent major discriminatory issue is the NTNU affair. The NTNU university in Trondheim already had an anti-Israel record. Its student union, of which membership is obligatory, boycotted Israel for almost a year in 2004. In May this year a number of professors from NTNU and the local Trondheim college Hist, asked the boards of the two institutions to boycott Israel. Apparently, the board of the college shortly afterwards voted against this.

In September a series of seminars on the Middle East, to be given over a few months, was announced. All six lecturers are anti-Israelis. Tomorrow night Ilan Pappe speaks there. The key organizers are all people who had signed the resolution to boycott Israel. Despite all this, the rector Torbjørn Digernes supported and financed a large part of the series. It was another pioneering act of anti-Israelism in Norway.

The NTNU affair requires a detailed case study and a detailed seminar on another occasion, so let me just summarize it briefly:

Entirely by chance someone discovered a few weeks before the board meeting on 12 November that the academic boycott of Israel was on its agenda. One NTNU professor, Bjørn Alsberg, prepared a petition to the board against the boycott. It would ultimately be signed by 103 NTNU professors, far more than those who had signed the pro-boycott petition. On the basis of Alsberg’s petition, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East prepared a petition against the boycott, which was signed by 3,500 academics all over the world, among whom were 13 Nobel Prize winners including the only two living Norwegian prize winners.

Other Jewish organizations, including ADL, AJCommittee, the Wiesenthal Center, CAMERA, World Jewish Congress, Academic Friends of Israel in the UK and many others, were very helpful. The boycott was also condemned by the Association of American University Professors, the Russell Group of the leading 20 UK universities, etc.

After all the bad international publicity finally the minister of higher education, Torah Aasland an extreme leftist herself, said that the board had no legal authority to support such an issue. Suddenly a few days before the vote, NTNU Rector Digernes who had partly financed the propaganda seminars organized by people who promote the boycott came to the conclusion that he had always been against the boycott. In the end the entire board was against the boycott.

Prof. Alsberg told me that the media present at the NTNU Board meeting were afterwards mainly interested in talking to the people who had supported the boycott. In a country where the battlefield for the battle of ideas is level, they would have been more interested in interviewing the winners, rather than the losers.

In this short introduction I could not cover all the incidents of the last year. These included Foreign Minister Støre maintaining the Holocaust memory abuser Trine Lilleng as a diplomat in Riyadh; the visit of Queen Sophia to a Muslim institution in Oslo, whose imam supports suicide bombings; and Norwegian government investment of $30 million in memory of the author Knut Hamsun, who dedicated his Nobel Prize for Literature to Goebbels and remained an admirer of Hitler till the end of the war.

The present Norwegian government was recently elected for four years. We can thus expect again many anti-Semitic and anti-Israelis incidents in Norway in the coming years. My conclusion is that we will have to gradually show the Norwegian Israel-haters and anti-Semites that there are no free anti-Semitic lunches. Thank you for your attention.

UK: PAKISTANI RAPIST GIVES IMMIGRATION OFFICE THE SLIP.......

2009-11-02T03:42:00.000-08:00

Convicted rapist escapes immigration officials days before he was due to be deported to Pakistan

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1224520/Convicted-rapist-escapes-immigration-officials-days-deported-Pakistan.html

A convicted rapist is on the run after escaping security guards at the Pakistan High Commission in London days before he was due to be deported.
Imtiaz Hussain, 44, had been transported from prison, where he was serving a nine-year sentence for rape, to the Pakistan High Commission to get a new passport in preparation for his deportation.

But the serial rapist gave immigration officials the slip, escaping through a window after claiming he needed the toilet.

He was last seen running along Sloane Square.

Police have now launched an nationwide manhunt for the sex attacker said to be 'very dangerous' and a 'serious threat to women'.

Netanyahu Speech at the UN........

2009-09-25T01:23:00.000-07:00

Linked from the Tundra Tabloids main blog.

Transcript of Prime Minister's speech to the UN.

Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Nearly 62 years ago, the United Nations recognized the right of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500 years-old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland.

I stand here today as the Prime Minister of Israel, the Jewish state, and I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people.

The United Nations was founded after the carnage of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust. It was charged with preventing the recurrence of such horrendous events. Nothing has undermined that central mission more than the systematic assault on the truth.

Yesterday the President of Iran stood at this very podium, spewing his latest anti-Semitic rants. Just a few days earlier, he again claimed that the Holocaust is a lie.

Last month, I went to a villa in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee. There, on January 20, 1942, after a hearty meal, senior Nazi officials met and decided how to exterminate the Jewish people. The detailed minutes of that meeting have been preserved by successive German governments.

Here is a copy of those minutes, in which the Nazis issued precise instructions on how to carry out the extermination of the Jews. Is this a lie?

A day before I was in Wannsee, I was given in Berlin the original construction plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Those plans are signed by Hitler’s deputy, Heinrich Himmler himself. Here is a copy of the plans for Auschwitz-Birkenau, where one million Jews were murdered. Is this too a lie?

This June, President Obama visited the Buchenwald concentration camp. Did President Obama pay tribute to a lie? And what of the Auschwitz survivors whose arms still bear the tattooed numbers branded on them by the Nazis? Are those tattoos a lie?

One-third of all Jews perished in the conflagration. Nearly every Jewish family was affected, including my own. My wife's grandparents, her father’s two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins were all murdered by the Nazis. Is that also a lie?
Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come here and to those who left this room in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries.

But to those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency?

A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the murder of six million Jews took place and pledges to wipe out the Jewish state. What a disgrace! What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations!

Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews. You're wrong. History has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many others.

This Iranian regime is fueled by an extreme fundamentalism that burst onto the world scene three decades ago after lying dormant for centuries.

In the past thirty years, this fanaticism has swept the globe with a murderous violence and cold-blooded impartiality in its choice of victims. It has callously slaughtered Moslems and Christians, Jews and Hindus, and many others. Though it is comprised of different offshoots, the adherents of this unforgiving creed seek to return humanity to medieval times. Wherever they can, they impose a backward regimented society where women, minorities, gays or anyone not deemed to be a true believer is brutally subjugated.

The struggle against this fanaticism does not pit faith against faith nor civilization against civilization. It pits civilization against barbarism, the 21st century against the 9th century, those who sanctify life against those who glorify death. The primitivism of the 9th century ought to be no match for the progress of the 21st century. The allure of freedom, the power of technology, the reach of communications should surely win the day.

Ultimately, the past cannot triumph over the future. And the future offers all nations magnificent bounties of hope. The pace of progress is growing exponentially. It took us centuries to get from the printing press to the telephone, decades to get from the telephone to the personal computer, and only a few years to get from the personal computer to the internet.

What seemed impossible a few years ago is already outdated, and we can scarcely fathom the changes that are yet to come.

We will crack the genetic code. We will cure the incurable. We will lengthen our lives. We will find a cheap alternative to fossil fuels and clean up the planet.

I am proud that my country Israel is at the forefront of these advances – by leading innovations in science and technology, medicine and biology, agriculture and water, energy and the environment. These innovations the world over offer humanity a sunlit future of unimagined promise.

But if the most primitive fanaticism can acquire the most deadly weapons, the march of history could be reversed for a time. And like the belated victory over the Nazis, the forces of progress and freedom will prevail only after a horrific toll of blood and fortune has been exacted from mankind.

That is why the greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction, and the most urgent challenge facing this body is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Are the member states of the United Nations up to that challenge? Will the international community confront a despotism that terrorizes its own people as they bravely stand up for freedom?

Will it take action against the dictators who stole an election in broad daylight and gunned down Iranian protesters who died in the streets choking in their own blood?

Will the international community thwart the world's most pernicious sponsors and practitioners of terrorism?

Above all, will the international community stop the terrorist regime of Iran from developing atomic weapons, thereby endangering the peace of the entire world?

The people of Iran are courageously standing up to this regime. People of goodwill around the world stand with them, as do the thousands who have been protesting outside this hall. Will the United Nations stand by their side?

Ladies and Gentlemen,
The jury is still out on the United Nations, and recent signs are not encouraging.

Rather than condemning the terrorists and their Iranian patrons, some here have condemned their victims. That is exactly what a recent UN report on Gaza did, falsely equating the terrorists with those they targeted.

For eight long years, Hamas fired from Gaza thousands of missiles, mortars and rockets on nearby Israeli cities. Year after year, as these missiles were deliberately hurled at our civilians, not a single UN resolution was passed condemning those criminal attacks.

We heard nothing – absolutely nothing – from the UN Human Rights Council, a misnamed institution if there ever was one.

In 2005, hoping to advance peace, Israel unilaterally withdrew from every inch of Gaza. It dismantled 21 settlements and uprooted over 8,000 Israelis.

We didn't get peace. Instead we got an Iranian backed terror base fifty miles from Tel Aviv. Life in Israeli towns and cities next to Gaza became a nightmare.

You see, the Hamas rocket attacks not only continued, they increased tenfold. Again, the UN was silent.

Finally, after eight years of this unremitting assault, Israel was finally forced to respond. But how should we have responded?

Well, there is only one example in history of thousands of rockets being fired on a country's civilian population. It happened when the Nazis rocketed British cities during World War II.

During that war, the allies leveled German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties. Israel chose to respond differently. Faced with an enemy committing a double war crime of firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians – Israel sought to conduct surgical strikes against the rocket launchers.

That was no easy task because the terrorists were firing missiles from homes and schools, using mosques as weapons depots and ferreting explosives in ambulances.

Israel, by contrast, tried to minimize casualties by urging Palestinian civilians to vacate the targeted areas. We dropped countless flyers over their homes, sent thousands of text messages and called thousands of cell phones asking people to leave.

Never has a country gone to such extraordinary lengths to remove the enemy's civilian population from harm's way. Yet faced with such a clear case of aggressor and victim, who did the UN Human Rights Council decide to condemn? Israel.

A democracy legitimately defending itself against terror is morally hanged, drawn and quartered, and given an unfair trial to boot.

By these twisted standards, the UN Human Rights Council would have dragged Roosevelt and Churchill to the dock as war criminals. What a perversion of truth! What a perversion of justice!

Delegates of the United Nations,
Will you accept this farce? Because if you do, the United Nations would revert to its darkest days, when the worst violators of human rights sat in judgment against the law-abiding democracies, when Zionism was equated with racism and when an automatic majority could declare that the earth is flat.

If this body does not reject this report, it would send a message to terrorists everywhere: Terror pays; if you launch your attacks from densely populated areas, you will win immunity.

And in condemning Israel, this body would also deal a mortal blow to peace. Here's why. When Israel left Gaza, many hoped that the missile attacks would stop. Others believed that at the very least, Israel would have international legitimacy to exercise its right of self-defense.

What legitimacy? What self-defense?

The same UN that cheered Israel as it left Gaza and promised to back our right of self-defense now accuses us –my people, my country - of war crimes? And for what? For acting responsibly in self-defense. What a travesty!

Israel justly defended itself against terror. This biased and unjust report is a clear-cut test for all governments. Will you stand with Israel or will you stand with the terrorists?

We must know the answer to that question now. Now and not later. Because if Israel is again asked to take more risks for peace, we must know today that you will stand with us tomorrow.

Only if we have the confidence that we can defend ourselves can we take further risks for peace.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
All of Israel wants peace. Any time an Arab leader genuinely wanted peace with us, we made peace. We made peace with Egypt led by Anwar Sadat. We made peace with Jordan led by King Hussein.

And if the Palestinians truly want peace, I and my government, and the people of Israel, will make peace. But we want a genuine peace, a defensible peace, a permanent peace.

In 1947, this body voted to establish two states for two peoples – a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted that resolution. The Arabs rejected it. We ask the Palestinians to finally do what they have refused to do for 62 years: Say yes to a Jewish state.

Just as we are asked to recognize a nation-state for the Palestinian people, the Palestinians must be asked to recognize the nation state of the Jewish people. The Jewish people are not foreign conquerors in the Land of Israel. This is the land of our forefathers.

Inscribed on the walls outside this building is the great Biblical vision of peace: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. They shall learn war no more." These words were spoken by the Jewish prophet Isaiah 2,800 years ago as he walked in my country, in my city - in the hills of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem. We are not strangers to this land. It is our homeland.

As deeply connected as we are to this land, we recognize that the Palestinians also live there and want a home of their own. We want to live side by side with them, two free peoples living in peace, prosperity and dignity.

But we must have security. The Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves except those handful of powers that could endanger Israel.

That is why a Palestinian state must be effectively demilitarized. We don't want another Gaza, another Iranian backed terror base abutting Jerusalem and perched on the hills a few kilometers from Tel Aviv.

We want peace.

I believe such a peace can be achieved. But only if we roll back the forces of terror, led by Iran, that seek to destroy peace, eliminate Israel and overthrow the world order.

The question facing the international community is whether it is prepared to confront those forces or accommodate them.

Over seventy years ago, Winston Churchill lamented what he called the "confirmed unteachability of mankind," the unfortunate habit of civilized societies to sleep until danger nearly overtakes them.

Churchill bemoaned what he called the "want of foresight, the unwillingness to act when action will be simple and effective, the lack of clear thinking, the confusion of counsel until emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong.”

I speak here today in the hope that Churchill's assessment of the "unteachability of mankind" is for once proven wrong.
I speak here today in the hope that we can learn from history -- that we can prevent danger in time.

In the spirit of the timeless words spoken to Joshua over 3,000 years ago, let us be strong and of good courage. Let us confront this peril, secure our future and, God willing, forge an enduring peace for generations to come.

Iran: Friday Prayers Turn Violent.......

2009-07-18T04:21:00.000-07:00

The unrest in Tehran continues, but outside of the protesters who are trully pressing for real freedoms, who amongst the present opposition can the West honestly support without being taken for a fool?

The Tundra Tabloids is on record supporting the average Iranian who wants to diminish the role Islam plays in Iran's society, and build a more modern state, one that's free from supporting international terrorism.

What's happening inside Iran however, is not a national movement being led by credible leaders, but by radical and highly corrupted Islamic clerics who are worried that their base of power and financial wealth is at risk, due to Mahmoud(goodie two shoes) Ahmadinejad's reforms.

"Moodie's reforms" however, are nothing more than an attempt to restore the late Ayattolah Khomenie's Islamic revolution.

Nothing worthwhile there to scream about, let alone to support. KGS

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99GETSO0&show_article=1

Police tear-gas Iran protesters during prayer

"TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Tens of thousands of government opponents packed Iran's main Islamic prayer service Friday, chanting "freedom, freedom" and other slogans as their top clerical backer Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani delivered a sermon bluntly criticizing the country's leadership over the crackdown on election protests.

Outside, police and pro-government Basiji militiamen fired tear gas and charged thousands of protesters who chanted "death to the dictator" and called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to resign. Dozens were arrested, piled in trucks and taken away, witnesses said.

Plainclothes Basijis stood in front of a line of riot police and pumped canisters of tear gas, which young protesters with green bandanas over their faces kicked away across the pavement, away from the crowds. Some set a bonfire in the street and waved their hands in the air in victory signs.

The opposition aimed to turn the Friday prayers at Tehran University into a show of their continued strength despite heavy government suppression since the disputed June 12 presidential election.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims to have won the election, sat among the worshippers, attending for the first time since the turmoil began. Many of the tens of thousands at the prayers wore headbands or wristbands in his campaign color green, or had green prayer rugs, in a crowd that filled the former soccer field where prayers are held and spilling into nearby streets."

A Couple of Baits for Mr.Illman.......

2009-05-24T01:03:00.000-07:00

Let’s stop talking about defamations. Lehto was also convicted of disturbing religious worship. According to the district court Lehto violated Muslims' religious worship by defaming the prophet Muhammad. Professor Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila has confirmed the interpretation according to which Muhammad is a revered figure in Islamic faith.
According to state prosecutor Mika Illman and Tampere district court insulting the prophet Muhammad is illegal, because Muhammad is revered by Muslims.
(On the other hand professor Hämeen-Anttila could certainly confirm that in Christianity Jesus and God are holy figures. Of course, this doesn’t prevent anybody to defame Jesus or God freely in the way he or she chooses.)
Next I intend to throw Mika a bait:
Prophet Muhammad was a pedophile and Islam reveres pedophilia as a religion. Islam is a religion of pedophilia. Pedophilia is Allah’s will.
Are these statements illegal? They certainly insult Muslim's religious feelings. Let’s approach the issue logically:
As a 50 year-old man Muhammad was engaged to six or seven year old Aisha. Their marriage was “consummated” when Aisha was nine years old. It is possible to think that they were living in another age and Muhammad’s deeds must not be judged according to today’s standards, but as we have learned during the last few years, schoolbooks from the 50’s were racist when they spoke about ”negroes” (even if ”negro” was not a racist term at the time by anybody’s standards), it’s equally justified to call a child rapist who lived 1400 years ago a child rapist .´
What has to be done so that the bolded statements were not true? You must insist that
a) ... Quran is not literally true (i.e Muhammad did not have sexual relations with a nine year old girl). This will not do, since according to Islamic doctrine and Muslims' opinion Quran is a literal word of Allah. Consummation and Aisha’s age cannot be denied without insulting Muslims.
b) ...Muhammad’s actions were not always acceptable. This will not do either, since according to Muslims (and Tampere district court) criticizing Muhammad is the same as criticizing Allah and therefore blasphemy. The penalty is death. Muslim’s believe that Muhammad’s actions were the will of Allah. Because Muhammad had sexual relations with a child, that was Allah’s will as well.
As we see, all the argumentative ways to disprove the bolded statements have been theologically exhausted. The fact that Muhammad was a pedophile and Allah supported pedophilia can only be denied either by denying the literal truthfulness of Quran or Muhammad’s status as a messenger of Allah whose actions are according to the will of Allah.

Therefore I repeat my claim:
Prophet Muhammad was a pedophile and Islam reveres pedophilia as a religion. Islam is a religion of pedophilia. Pedophilia is Allah’s will.
The next bait reads:
Robbing by passers and living at taxpayers’ expense as a parasite is a national, possibly genetic characteristic of Somalis.
Is this claim inappropriate? My fellow blogger Kekke filed a complaint to the Media Council for the editorial that appeared in newspaper Kaleva, in which killing people while intoxicated was described as a national, possibly genetic characteristic of Finns. Media Council dismissed the complaint. According to Council secretary Nina Porra:
”The writer probably refers to studies, in which heavy drinking has been observed to be a specific feature in Finnish drinking culture. It has also been observed that there is a correlation between intoxication and violence. The genetic background of the problem is not handled as a fact, but the writer gives his own opinion.”
Naturally, the decisions made by Media Council are not legally binding so inquisitor Illman doesn’t have to take notice. But on the other hand, “incitement against ethnic group” is a felony and because Illman (whom the matter belongs to) has not reacted to the Kaleva article, it can be concluded that negative ethnic and genetic stereotypes can be published as long as they are not handled as facts.
We can’t think that there are different rules for different people in Finland, can we?
Naturally, not all Somalis commit robberies or live at taxpayers’ expense, but not all Finns kill while intoxicated either.
Somalis who constitute 0.2 per cent of Finland’s total population commit 12 per cent of robberies reported to the Police. One in ten Somalis living in Finland has a job. Committing robberies and living at taxpayers’ expense are a lot more common among Somalis related to their share of the population than killing while intoxicated among the ethnic Finns. Therefore, I present my assumption (that I do not regard as fact):
Robbing by passers and living at taxpayers’ expense as a parasite is a national, possibly genetic characteristic of Somalis.

With this, I wish Mika a nice day.

Barry Rubin: All Israeli-But no Palestinian- Leaders want to End the Conlfict.......

2009-02-17T08:14:00.000-08:00

By Barry Rubin

What is the most important theme of Israeli politics, policy, and thinking today? It is pretty simple but you will rarely see it explained in much of the world:

Most Israelis believe that the Palestinians don't want to make a comprehensive peace with Israel in exchange for a Palestinian state. Hamas doesn’t want it; the Palestinian Authority (PA) is both unwilling and unable to do it. Israel faces a hostile Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hizballah, and various Islamist movements which all want to destroy it. In addition, it cannot depend on strong Western or international support in defending itself.

Therefore, it is not a moment for Israel to make big concessions or take big risks. Peace is not at hand. The priority—even while continuing negotiations and trying to help the PA to survive—is defense.

That’s what the people who voted for Labor or Likud or Lieberman, Kadima or Shas or National Union or Jewish Home or United Torah Judaism believed. More than 85 percent of Israelis voted for parties that hold that basic conception, while that concept itself is the product of a very serious assessment of very real experience. And that—whatever differences they have—is beyond any definition of “left” or “right.”

In contrast, what is the main theme internationally in evaluating the elections? The right in Israel is against peace, Israelis moved to the right in this election hence Israelis are against peace.

To make such a leap, it is necessary to avoid talking about the herd of elephants in the room: Palestinian politics. If anyone looked beyond the most superficial level of English-language interviews by PA leaders trying to make propaganda points, the conclusion is unavoidable that there is no possibility of an Israel-Palestinian peace agreement for years to come. This is regardless of who is Israel’s leader or anything within reason, or even somewhat beyond reason, which could be offered.

Here are some tips toward proving that point:

--Analyze the Fatah Central Committee's membership and the viewpoints expressed by the group’s top leaders. The number who can be called moderates ready to accept and implement a two-state solution stands at about 10 percent of them.

--Mahmoud Abbas is weak. He has neither charisma nor organized base. While relatively moderate he will not give up the demand for all Palestinian refugees to be able to live in Israel, something that is acceptable to no potential governing party in Israel. He is sick and will probably not last in office much longer. He has made no attempt to transform Palestinian political thinking or to provide an alternative vision of peace for his people.

--There is no moderate alternative Palestinian leader in Fatah or elsewhere. Are there those who voice a moderate two-state solution position and who advocate coexistence? Yes, there are some but they have no organization or power whatsoever. Moreover, they say so almost exclusively in English to Westerners and not to their own people. To express anything equivalent to Labor or Kadima, even Likud, positions is to risk your life.

--Schools, mosques, media and other institutions controlled fully or partly by the PA daily preach that all Israel is Palestine, Israel is evil, and violence against it is good. Hardly the most minimal steps have been taken to prepare the Palestinian masses for peace. For example, no one dare suggest that a Palestinian nationalist movement might want to resettle Palestinian refugees in Palestine, not Israel; or that Israel and President Bill Clinton made a good offer in 2000 and it was a mistake to reject it. Or a dozen other points necessary as a basis for real peace.

--Palestinian public opinion polls consistently show overwhelming support for hardline positions and for terrorism against Israeli civilians.

--An unyielding historical narrative still predominates that the whole land between the Jordan River and the sea is and should be Arab Palestine.

--Of course, Hamas governs about 40 percent of West Bank/Gaza Palestinians and opposes Israel’s existence explicitly. The PA and Fatah do not vigorously combat the Hamas world view, except perhaps for its idea of an Islamist state.

--On the contrary, Fatah and the PA put a higher priority on conciliation with Hamas rather than peace with Israel.

--This conflict is not continuing because there is a dispute about the precise boundary line between Israel and a Palestinian state. It is going on because the Palestinian leaders—all of them—are either unwilling or unable to accept Israel’s permanent existence, the end of the conflict, the abandonment of terrorism, and the settlement of Palestinian refugees in a Palestinian state.

--What should have been happening recently is that the PA sent delegations around the world to announce it was the sole legitimate government of the Gaza Strip, that Hamas seized power in a coup and murdered Fatah people in cold blood, that Hamas is an extremist terrorist group, and that the PA demands the international community restore its own rule to the area. Instead, it sent delegations around the world to blame Israel for every problem and tried to negotiate a deal with Hamas without requiring any change in that organization’s policy or goals.

None of the above arguments can be refuted. Literally none of these points—except for the barrier posed by Hamas’s rule over Gaza—is really understood by most governments, academics, or journalists.

Nevertheless, if you add all these factors together it’s clear that whoever governs Israel the PA is incapable of making comprehensive peace. There is no peace process but rather a long-term peace recess.

There’s nothing left or right wing about the above analysis. Tsipi Livni and Ehud Barak know these things. Equally, this analysis doesn’t mean Israel cannot work with the PA on such matters as stability, economic well-being for Palestinians, blocking terrorism, or keeping Hamas out of power on the West Bank.

There is a Palestinian partner for the above four issues, but not for a comprehensive solution ending the conflict forever in exchange for a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel. As we learned in the 1990s with the peace process and more recently with disengagement, Israel’s actions—no matter how conciliatory and concessionary—cannot make peace when the other side is unwilling and unable to do so. It’s time for the rest of the world to learn this fact.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), with Walter Laqueur (Viking-Penguin); the paperback edition of The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan); A Chronological History of Terrorism, with Judy Colp Rubin, (Sharpe); and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley). To read and subscribe to MERIA and other GLORIA Center publications or to order books, write me at profbarryrubin@yahoo.com.

ISRAEL’S ELECTION IN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

2009-02-09T01:45:00.000-08:00

BY BARRY RUBIN

Many people don’t understand what’s happening now in Israeli politics, so here’s a brief, and non-partisan, appreciation. Compared to the past, there’s far less difference between the three main parties. This is largely due to the objective situation, which is rather inflexible.

It is easy to characterize some as rabid right-wingers who throw away chances for peace and others as rabid left-wingers who are ready to make too many concessions. Neither argument is correct except for the fringes, which are not going to shape Israeli policy. I am tempted to add that abroad, the left thinks we’re evil, while the right thinks we’re stupid. All of this has little to do with reality.

The dominant theme in international media coverage is to say Israelis are moving toward the right. Yet this is both misleading and misinterpreted. On the first aspect, the real Israeli move has been toward the center, which is represented not only by Kadima and Likud but also by Labor. The great majority of Israelis are about to vote for parties close to centrist positions than at any time in history.

The left-wing mantra is peace, though how we can reach peace with Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hizballah is rather hard to see. With the PA the situation is a more complex but, briefly, it doesn’t control Gaza, is still full of radical elements, and has weak leadership.

The PA is nowhere near being able to make peace on a realistic basis. Everyone in the PA and in Israel’s leadership knows this; few in the Western media and academia seems close to comprehending it. A lot of governments understand the situation privately but talk quite different in public.

The right-wing mantra is victory, though how Israel is going to replace the Iranian and Syrian governments, or destroy Hamas and Hizballah is equally hard to see. Israel has minimal to no international support for these goals and lacks great alternatives to what exists at present.

What have Israelis learned over the last decade that shapes their thinking?

We discovered that Palestinians and Syrians are unwilling and unable to make peace.

We saw that Fatah is still full of extremism and its leadership is too weak and too hardline itself to make a comprehensive peace agreement.

We viewed the rise of Hamas as a group dedicated to permanent war with Israel and its seizure of one-half of the Palestinian-ruled territories, using land from which Israel withdrew as a base for attacks.
We experienced the continuing hatred of the Arab world and Muslim world toward Israel, largely undiminished by Israeli concessions.
We observed Iran’s rise as a power, potentially nuclear armed, whose regime explicitly seeks Israel’s extinction.
We noted the world didn’t reward Israel for making concessions and taking risks. Indeed, the more Israel gave, the higher the degree of slander and hostility rose in many sectors.

As a result of this, there has arisen in Israel a national consensus around the following points:

--Israel wants peace and will make real concessions for true lasting, stable peace and a two-state solution

--Few think the Palestinian leadership—PA, Fatah—is willing or able to make such an agreement for decades. The same applies to Syria.

--As a result, any real changes on Jerusalem, the Golan Heights or West Bank settlements are far off.

--No deal can be made with Hamas. But Hamas isn’t going to disappear either. The same applies to Hizballah.

--The key point is to defend Israel and its citizens so they pursue their normal lives.

--Iran is a real danger and when it appears about to get nuclear weapons, a big decision will have to be made on attacking these facilities.

As a result of this national consensus—accepted by Labor, Likud, and Kadima, along with many others—the next government can be a national unity government. Whoever becomes prime minister would do well to bring in one or both of the other two main parties. What is Israel’s consensus policy for the next government?

--To stress that we want peace, are ready for a Palestinian state, aren’t responsible for the conflict and violence continuing.

--To maintain deterrence and defend ourselves.

--To preserve the best possible relations with the United States, Europe, and other countries as long as it does not involve risks to Israeli national interests and citizens.

--Security cooperation with the PA to prevent terrorist attacks on Israel in exchange for helping them economically and against Hamas to ensure that it doesn’t take over the West Bank. Without illusions regarding Fatah and the PA, this effort seems to be working.

--To decide when to strike back at Hamas—and potentially Hizballah—based on any attacks on us. Precise response depends on timing, opportunity, and their behavior.

--To work for the isolation of Iran, Hizballah and Hamas.

Where are the main differences among the leading parties? They are more atmospherics than real: offering small concessions; making small demands. If much of the election revolves around personalities that is because strategy and policy are not hugely different among them. Bibi isn’t going to embark on a settlement-building campaign; Tzipi isn’t going to give away east Jerusalem.

And that’s a good thing for whatever faults they have, this trio is basically making appropriate responses to the situation.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), with Walter Laqueur (Viking-Penguin); the paperback edition of The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan); A Chronological History of Terrorism, with Judy Colp Rubin, (Sharpe); and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley). To subscribe to Gloria Center publications for free, write profbarryrubin@yahoo.com.

The Story The Tundra Tabloids Broke: The Diantha Harris Story.......

2008-11-10T00:54:00.000-08:00

Here is the list of links to the articles posted on the Tundra Tabloids concerning the Diantha Harris story, which the TT broke on the 6th of October, 2008. This is for the historical record, something of which I'm proud of. To break a story that reached the pages of The Drudge Report, is something that does not happen everyday to a small blog. Read if interested, and enjoy.

The video which caught an Obama supporting teacher, Diantha Harris berating a student that supported Johan McCain, in a N.Carolina school. The three minute clip was taken from a Swedish documentary filmed in the Spring of 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDEAYgm0Dv8&eurl=http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/

Here is the post that broke the news, be aware that the teacher is teaching in Fayetteville NC, not Asheville as I claimed initially. the links are from the oldest to the latest.

1.) http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/2008/11/swedish-documentary-shows-ashville.html

2.) http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/2008/11/update-on-asheville-teacher-diantha.html

3.) http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/2008/11/little-green-footballs-cribs-story.html

4.) http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/2008/11/robert-spencer-comes-to-aid-of-tundra.html

5.) http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/2008/11/superintendent-william-c-harrison.html

6.) http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/2008/11/tundra-tabloids-biantha-harris-story.html

7.) http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/2008/11/smackdown-of-cumberland-superintendent.html

Links to the media that carried the story in chronological order.

The Citizen-Times: http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008811080340

ABC News 13: http://www.wlos.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/wlos_vid_1626.shtml

WRAL.Com: http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3918046/

NOTE: WRAL linked to the wrong You Tube video, not the correct one which the Tundra Tabloids' broke the story with. Unfortunately, the Drudge Report linked to this story and video.

FayObserver: http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=309848

NOTE: Fayette Observer, mentions the Tundra Tabloids as the blog that broke the story.

Glenn Beck: http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/17923/

Mike Ghallager: http://mikeonline.com/ Provided direct link to TT, but from a non-static page.

Michelle 'Rip-off' Malkin posts on it here: http://michellemalkin.com/2008/11/07/update-on-child-abusing-obama-teacher-superintendent-responds/

NOTE: Malkin was emailed by myself and from others and she refused to accredit the TT.

USA Today: http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/11/todays-video-te.html

NOTE: Mentions and links to the Citizen-Times article that was the first to pick it up, (I called them) and it mentioned the Tundra Tabloids.

A Tribute to Jörg Haider.......

2008-10-21T23:40:00.000-07:00

By ESW

A little more than a week has passed since Austrians woke up to the news of Jörg Haider’s death. And it is still very difficult to comprehend the loss of this man whose death has caused Carinthia to lapse into a collective ocean of tears. Thousands of red and white candles, even more flowers, line the streets. Thousands of Carinthians lined up in front of the governments building to pay their respects to Jörg Haider, their beloved governor (and beloved he was, despite MSM commentaries to the contrary), lying in state in a simple casket draped with red roses and a wreath bearing the words of his widow: “With love, Claudia”.

His funeral service took place yesterday, exactly one week after his death, in Klagenfurt, Carinthia’s capital. It was a somber affair, without any disruptions from “right-winged neonazis”, as was feared (and I might add, perhaps even hoped for, as it would have shown Haider’s evil nature). As a matter of fact, the service was attended by almost all members of the caretaker government, the Austrian president, governors from all other Austrian provinces (even Vienna’s mayor, who is provincial governor at the same time as Vienna is also a province, and who is infamous for his hateful words on election night).

What angered me was the attendance of Gaby Schaunig, a member of the Socialist party and former member of Haider’s government, who had staunchly opposed anything and everything Haider ever said and did. She left the government prior to the elections, saying that she could no longer tolerate working with Haider. She explained that she no longer wanted to be insulted on a daily basis. Why would someone like Schaunig attend the funeral of someone she so obviously hated? I would have respected her decision to refrain form attending more than her attendance.

She is a hypocrite.

At least the Greens had the guts to stay away from the funeral. Not one member of the Green party attended. While this was also a snub to the politician Jörg Haider, I respect their decision. Perhaps — no, surely — it is much better for Austria if the Greens never become part of a coalition government. Imagine if they were forced by protocol to attend a funeral of a man or woman they so obviously dislike?

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi could also be seen in the crowd. He embraced Haider’s widow, Claudia, for a long time. Neither Le Pen nor Filip Dewinter attended the funeral service. No reason was given.

To return to the service: more than a million Austrians watch the live TV coverage, watching as friends and foe describe their feelings about Jörg Haider. Traditional Carinthian music is sung by a student choir; some tearful faces can be seen. Haider’s mountaineering friend, Teddy Inthal, speaks first, “The sun has fallen from the sky, the sun that Haider tried to reach all his life! His death is an error!”

Following these personal words, former minister of justice, Dieter Böhmdorfer, takes the podium to describe the political being of Jörg Haider. Uwe Scheuch, a long-time friend of Haider, describes his son’s reaction to the governor’s death, “Our governor cannot die!” Scheuch adds, “Jörg, we will take good care of your Carinthia!”

The following rendition of the song “Ich glaube” (I believe) by a popular Austrian singer-songwriter, Udo Jürgens, causes tears to flow freely, even from hard-boiled politicians, who are seen with tissues. Claudia Haider and her daughters also cannot hold back their tears, like the countless mourners lining the streets, watching the service on videowalls.

After another three more political speeches, caretaker chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer takes the podium for some conciliatory remarks on behalf of the government (and perhaps the socialist party, which hated Haider with a passion since his takeover of the FPÖ in the late 1980s). Gusenbauer calls Haider “an extraordinary man”, who was able to detect inevitable changes that needed to be made. He adds that “the only consoling fact about death is Haider’s ability to reconcile in death that which was irreconcilable in life. As a result of your death, perhaps some of those people will have the courage to come to terms with the human being, the man Jörg Haider. Governor, dear colleague, rest in peace” These words are followed by the Austrian national anthem and, as a deliberate climax to mark the end of the funeral service, the Carinthian anthem.

The official funeral service ends with the celebration of a mass in the Klagenfurt cathedral. Mozart’s Requiem is performed during the mass, again moving attendants to tears. After communion, Claudia Haider personally thanks all well-wishers, who “have offered words of solace on the hard and rocky road of mourning.” She adds, “One must not despair when something is lost for everything is returned in an even more magnificent way.”Haider’s last destination is the cemetery, where he is cremated at 4 p.m.

This leaves us — Austrians, Carinthians, supporters, critics — without Jörg Haider. While the above words and the tearful description of the funeral service might not be understood by those not residing in Austria and thus unfamiliar with Austrian politics, Haider was truly an asset to the political landscape. For decades, Austrian politics was dominated by SPÖ and ÖVP, either in coalition governments or with a majority government by either party. Austria badly needed a change, and Haider was the one who initiated change.

It was only natural that the ruling parties were wary, especially the SPÖ, whose leader at the time, chancellor Franz Vranitzky, was in charge of the doctrine of ostracism towards Jörg Haider. Ultimately, it was this doctrine that opened the door to the forming of the controversial ÖVP-FPÖ coalition government after the 1999 elections, followed by the EU sanctions against Austria. Vranitzky passionately hated Haider, as did does Werner Faymann, today’s SPÖ leader and chancellor-in-waiting.To those waiting to hear critical words from me, an Austrian, regarding his controversial positions, I say this:You want to hear and read a condemnation.

What I can say is the following: He admitted his allusions to the Third Reich were wrong, having caused him one of the most painful moments in his life, namely his forced resignation from the position of provincial governor. I agree that these words were more than unwise. However, in my view they did not endanger Austria as a democracy. Following Haider’s words, there were no swastikas blowing in the wind, no Jews deported, no homosexuals beheaded. Haider was young at the time; he learned. He was punished (see above). This case should be closed.

Former chancellor Schüssel was a worthy opponent and pulverized FPÖ and Haider, causing Haider to mellow with time. As Serge Trifkovic notes, when Haider’s FPÖ entered the coalition government in 2000,

[…]

Haider’s ambiguous statements on the Third Reich […] ceased to be part of his politically operative vocabulary. On the other hand, his main message — that there are too many foreigners in Austria and that immigration threatens the country’s economy and traditional ethnic composition — is even more valid today than a decade ago. That message is now shared by two parties. One of them (FPÖ) Haider led to national prominence; the other (BZÖ) he created from scratch. They command 29 percent of the electorate between them, but were unlikely to cooperate because of the bitter personal animosity between Haider and the current FPÖ leader and former Haider protégé Heinz-Christian Strache. Ironically, the Austrian nationalist Right may be better poised to achieve unity that has eluded it for years now that its poster boy is no longer with us.

Although I was not in Austria when the government was formed in 2000, and I was unable to watch TV coverage of the demonstrations protesting this government, I still remember my outrage at the EU sanctions imposed on Austria.

Mr. Trifkovic sums up:
The move (the forming of the coalition government ÖVP-FPÖ) nevertheless caused an uproar in Brussels: the European Union decided to impose sanctions on Austria even before the government had announced its program. “There is a lot of excitement in the European chicken pen,” Haider quipped, “and the fox hasn’t even got in.”

This episode merits some attention because it reveals in a raw form the mix of authoritarianism and hypocrisy characteristic of Brussels. On January 31, 2000, the European Union informed Austria that it would face boycott if its new government included the FPÖ. On February 4 Chancellor Schuessel nevertheless went ahead and brought members of the Freedom Party into his coalition. He was acting in full accord with the rules of parliamentary democracy:

the new government had a clear majority of 104 out of 183 parliamentary deputies. EU governments duly severed all bilateral political contacts with the Austrian government. They also restricted the promotion of Austrians at EU headquarters and ignored Austrian ministers at EU meetings. The measures also included ban on school trips, cultural exchanges and military exercises. The U.S. joined the bandwagon and the State Department called Ambassador Kathryn Hall back to Washington for “consultations.”

Although the measures had no impact on the lives of ordinary Austrians, they triggered a backlash among the Austrian public. They also caused an outcry in some smaller EU nations — notably Denmark — fearful of the domination of more powerful members, such as France, which pushed for punitive measures. For months thereafter the EU’s Portuguese presidency maintained that the sanctions would remain, but after the EU foreign ministers’ Azores meeting in June 2000 it was obvious that the embargo could not be sustained.

The EU sanctions were illegal because the decision to apply them was taken outside the EU structures and without due process: the Austrian government was not allowed have its point of view heard before the other members states took action against it. The EU action was doubly contentious in view of the fact that Haider’s party was democratically elected and that it had not done or said anything contrary to Austria’s constitution or European law. Even those Austrians not sympathetic to Haider came to see Brussels’ heavy-handedness as an insult to their country.

Not all governments were happy with these sanctions. My father was ambassador to Greece at the time and told me that he did not feel the sanctions in day-to-day business dealings with the Greek government. It seems to me that some EU member states may have been bullied into supporting something they did not agree with. This bullying comes as no surprise. It is standard operating procedure in Brussels.

The first political result of his death was the decision of the ÖVP to start coalition talks right away, ostensibly because of the financial crisis, but those wary of the MSM know better. The conservatives seemingly decided that Haider’s 27-year-old successor, Stefan Petzner, was not the right material to form a government with. The general mood among political commentators is that BZÖ will not survive, and will ultimately merge with FPÖ. FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache has already offered “sanctuary” to BZÖ MP’s.

Stefan Petzner, Haider’s best friend, spokesman and protégé, is already being denounced by the MSM and political opponents. I believe that he should be given a chance to prove himself even though newspaper commentators are already calling for Haider’s widow to take charge of the party. Petzner could and should be taken seriously, at least by us in the Counterjihad movement, because he clearly knows what is at stake regarding Islam. He was quoted as saying that one of his foremost goals is to stop the creeping Islamization of Austria.

As I have said before, Austrians are in for interesting political times.

David Littman in Haaretz Article.......

2008-10-15T06:13:00.000-07:00

David Littman was interviewed by the Haaretz concerning the release of the movie "Operation Mural", which tells of the clandestine rescue operation of the 530 Jewish children from Morocco, through the help of the Littman's and other courageous operatives.

The original published English text contained some errors, so Mr.Littman asked whether the Tundra Tabloids would kindly republish the corrected version for the historical record. You may view the trailer to the movie here. KGS

NOTE: D.Littman adds: Although the article is very substantive and descriptive, errors crept in, as I was unable to advise Yael Sheleg for his final Hebrew text– and time was pressing. He checked one of Gad Shahar’s affirmation which I was able to correct before publication, but that was all I was asked about.

[...]

After publication, I did not have the translation of the Hebrew until publication of the English edition when I was able to read it for the first time. I then realized that there were mistakes that were unfortunate, but I was advised by friends not to bother to try to correct them with a letter to the editor, as it would be difficult to publish in Hebrew and English. It would not be fair to Yair Sheleg, who had written a long and detailed article (longer than intended at the beginning), most of which was well written and accurate.

D-Littman: "I had put in red script the mistakes by the journalist or the passages which could have been left out, with a (…). In smaller, blue passages, I explain which statements are inaccurate. This is done also for concerned friends and colleagues, as well as for my archives and the ‘historical record’."

Codename: Operation Mural
By Yair Sheleg
Tags: Mossad, aliyah, Switzerland
At the start of 1961, David Littman's life seemed to be moving along nicely. He was 27 years old at the time, from a wealthy Jewish family, a graduate of prestigious
[I was 27; my 28 birthday was on 4 July 1961. – not important, but I’m correcting it.]
Anglican schools. About a year earlier he had married Giselle, the daughter of a Jewish family that had immigrated to Britain from Egypt (today Giselle Littman, under the pseudonym "Bat Yeor," is a well-known historian and writer focusing on Jews and Christians in Islamic countries). They already had their first child, Diana, and had moved to Switzerland. Littman's original plan was to continue the family's real estate business, but he was not pressed for time, as he had already inherited considerable wealth from his father. And so he spent his time reading journalist William Shirer's thick volume, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich."
The book, he says, left him unsettled. "I asked myself two questions: What should a Jew who lived in neutral countries like Switzerland or Sweden have done in those times, and what could I do today for the sake of the Jewish people?" He decided to knock on the doors of all the Jewish organizations in Geneva to ask them to give him something to do. But none of the groups had anything to offer him. And then, just as he was about to give up, he approached an organization called OSE (Oeuvre de secours aux enfants - the Organization for the Rescue of Children), which dealt with rescuing Jewish children during and after the Holocaust. For the director of the organization, Prof. Jacques Bloch, Littman was heaven-sent.
Only two days earlier, the emissary of the Jewish Agency in Switzerland, Naftali Bar-Giora, had asked him for help in finding a volunteer for a secret mission to get Jewish children out of Morocco. Ever since 1956, when Morocco had won its independence from France, the authorities had prohibited Jews from leaving the country freely. Many Moroccan Jews suffered from harassment and the Mossad was organizing clandestine departures. But in January 1961, a disaster had occurred: The illegal immigrant ship Egoz, which had left Morocco in the dark of night, sank and all 44 passengers (about half of them children) perished.

A new route to Israel was needed, which was why the Mossad had come up with the following idea: One of the secret service's emissaries would pretend to be the representative of a Swiss humanitarian organization and would make the following proposal to the Moroccan government to take hundreds of children (not necessarily Jewish) for a vacation in Switzerland. The Jewish children gathered by the volunteer, who would be posted in Casablanca, would indeed go to Switzerland first - but after a brief stay they would continue on to Israel.
To carry out this mission, a person was needed whose appearance and biography would befit that of the representative of a Swiss humanitarian organization. The tall, wealthy and supremely self-confident Littman seemed to fit this description like a glove. Thus Operation Mural (a name chosen at random) was born, in the course of which 530 Jewish children from Morocco immigrated to Israel. Last night, Channel 1 aired a documentary film about the affair, directed by veteran documentary film-maker Yehuda Kaveh ("Operation Mural - Casablanca 1961").
Gad Shahar, a Mossad immigration emissary in Morocco during those years, relates that in order to maintain the mission's secrecy and also to prevent Littman from revealing unnecessary information by mistake (or under interrogation), "Throughout the entire length of the operation, he [Littman] himself did not know that he was working for the Mossad. He thought he was working for the Jewish Agency and that the masses of children and parents who were knocking at the door of his office in Casablanca had come to him in response to advertisements that had been published in the Moroccan press. In fact, hardly a single Jew had seen those notices. They were important only for the cover. The parents and children came to him as a result of our secret work, going from door to door and to reach the members of the community."
[The above is inexact. Gad is a close friend, but at 84, errors can be made by anyone. I obviously knew everything, as any ‘response to advertisement’ that I put in newspapers (there were 2 or 3) would pass through my office. Gad appears to have forgotten that money given by his misgeret group to parents to pass to me (for the cost of the holidays & transport) was returned by me to him or another at our evening meetings. How could I imagine that these parents had seen my newspaper advertisement, as I handed back the money they received (from the misgeret) to Gad, and did not keep it in our bank account to cover costs?
Yair Sheleg called me very early before publication and asked me if it was true that I didn’t know that the children would finish up in Israel. I was astonished and told him that this ‘suggestion’ was absurd. I hadn’t volunteered in Geneva ‘to bring Jewish children for Swiss holidays’. The film makes this point clearly and I had also emailed my January 2004 Ashdod speech which contains all such details. Unfortunately, I was not asked anything else about other affirmations, otherwise I would have advised him to leave out other quoted inaccuracies in his text.]
Beyond the difficulty of deceiving the Moroccan government, it was of course anything but simple to separate young children from their parents. In order to tempt the parents, the Mossad emissaries promised that those who agreed to send their children would be given priority on the list for immigration of adults. This was definitely a significant catalyst, but still the decisions were not easy. Yossi Shahar (no relation to Gad Shahar), one of the children who came to Israel as a result of Operation Mural, relates:
"Some of my friends had signed up for immigration to Israel, and I very much wanted to go, too, especially since some of my relatives had already immigrated and I was in charge of the correspondence with them. But I knew that my parents would not agree because I was their eldest child and I was only 11 years old. So I started to organize the initial arrangements for myself. At a certain stage it was no longer possible to conceal this from my parents and the immigration emissaries came for a talk with them. "This conversation was far from easy, but in the end my father agreed. I think that in the end he realized that if I did not leave, the family would never leave, because it was hard for him to give up his shop. The moment he consented, he did not even need my mother's agreement. In our patriarchal family, it was enough that he had decided."
His mother, Rachel Sabbagh, remembers a different story: "I very much wanted to immigrate to Israel, because most of the family from my side already lived there and I had remained pretty much alone. But my husband was opposed, because he was a merchant and made a good living, and he was afraid to leave everything behind. I knew that only the immigration of one of our children could possibly persuade my husband. Therefore I agreed that Yossi would immigrate. In fact, one of the girls was supposed to go with him [it had been decided to try to send at least two siblings from every family so the children would not be entirely alone in Israel], but the children needed permission from the principals of their schools and it just so happened that right then her principal was not in Morocco. After Yossi immigrated, my husband also began to talk about immigration and 10 months later we were already in Israel."
Another problem was linked to the question of what to do with the Muslim children who had signed up for the program. Littman relates that it was the parents' propensity for haggling that saved the operation. "To make the story credible, we charged the parents a symbolic sum of 10 francs per day for each day of the vacation. The price was very low but the [non-Jewish] parents nevertheless wanted to negotiate the sum. We haggled and haggled and each time I dropped the price a little, but by the time the negotiations were completed the project had already come to an end."
[No Muslim children came to my office to sign up (at SFr. 10 a day x 30 days + travel). Sheleg misunderstand what I told him. I was negotiating withing two days of my arrival on 16 March – I only met Gad @ 26 March – with directors of Muslim organizations in Rabat (“Martyrs of the Resistance”, etc.), as stated in the film. Otherwise, the ‘haggling’ point is correct – but it was with heads of those organizations, not any of the parents.]
Nevertheless, the fact that all those who left were Jewish nearly scuttled the operation. When the list of children came to the desk of the police commander in Casablanca, who was supposed to sign it, he exploded: "You know you are partner to a Zionist plot," he said to Littman. "All the names here are Jewish." Littman responded with surprise and anger: "I attacked him - how dare he accuse me of serving Zionist interests. At the same time, I hastened to meet with one of the heads of the Moroccan secret service, with whom I had formed a social relationship earlier on and I complained to him about the police official who was making problems for the wonderful humanitarian initiative and even daring to accuse me of Zionism."
[The idea that I “attacked” the khalifa of the 1st district of Casablanca is strange. In fact, I took on an air of great surprise and was extremely polite – and that led to my success.]
Littman's playacting was successful. The senior official ordered his subordinate to approve the list and the operation took its course. Moroccan policemen even helped the children load their baggage onto the buses. But the risks were far from over. It was clear from the get-go that it would be impossible to take all the hundreds of children who had signed up in one go. Back in those days, the planes were too small and one large group was liable to arouse suspicion. The 530 [not 630] children who had signed up were supposed to reach [delete: fly to] France in five [not six] separate groups (all of them were set to leave during the summer vacation, before the first group was supposed to return to Morocco), and to continue on to Switzerland to spend a number of weeks there.
Only then would the children travel to Israel. But Gad Shahar relates that as the first group was settling into the guesthouse in Switzerland, the Mossad emissary in France decided that such a stay was a waste of money for the Israeli taxpayer and that it was better to put the children on a flight to Israel directly from the airport in Marseille.
[There were never “hundreds of children who had signed up in one go”. It was a very slow process begun in late May, and it depended on how many I could ‘process’ with the various Moroccan authorities. In the last days, I could process 50 passports in 2 days; at the start only a few. It was not the 1st group that was sent by Youth Aliyah to Israel, but I believe the 2rd group (10 July), straight from Lyons airport.
This decision had nothing to do with ‘a waste of money for the Israeli taxpayer’, but resulted from a lack of place in an available home in Switzerland, because OSE had not anticipated such remarkable results. But our security was put at stake by this irresponsible act, which thus brought “Operation Mural” to an end. The only children to pass by Marseille came by ship (those in the 26 June convoy of the S.S. Ionia, who went to Morgins by bus and stayed there a month; and the 4th convoy of 22 July which arrived on 25 July – a day after my departure with the 5th convoy on 24 July – when all were then flown straight to Israel.]
When the second [delete: first] group landed in Israel, rumors began to circulate and ultra-Orthodox circles kicked up a political and public storm about how religious children from Islamic countries were once again falling into the clutches of secular education. To the horror of those involved in the operation, this allegation was even broadcast on Israel Radio, even though some of the children, as well as Littman and his family, had not yet left Morocco, which could have endangered all of them.
Shahar says that to this day he does not understand how the censor allowed the report to be broadcast on the radio. Fortunately, the argument did not come to the attention of the Moroccan authorities. Nevertheless, the heightened sense of anxiety did cause the operation to come to an early end and one of the groups was canceled. In the end five groups, numbering a total of 530 children, left in the operation.
[No group was cancelled by me. I increased the 5th group to include all and some more.]
Yossi Shahar says that he never regretted leaving his family in the framework of the operation: "Of course I experienced moments of sorrow, especially because I did not witness the birth of my little brother in Morocco, but I never had any regret. I was sent to a wonderful Youth Aliyah boarding school, Shfeya, near Zichron Yaakov. I received an excellent education there and it changed my whole life for the better."
Journalist Shmuel Segev, who published a book in the 1980s about the larger immigration operation, which was known as Operation Yakhin, says there was no direct connection between it and Littman's activity: "The main connection is that Operation Mural was among the factors that persuaded King Hassan II that in any case his country was wide open to the Israelis and that it was better for him to reach an agreement with them that would serve his interests. At that time he was a new ruler, with quite a number of enemies, and he needed help. The Israelis provided him with money and, what was more important, we helped him organize his security services and we also provided him with important information about his enemies at home."

[This is not all what Shmuel Segev said, so he informed me. He actually replied: “Yes and No” – and then explained what he meant by that. All such details, and others, will be covered in his forthcoming book in Hebrew: The Moroccan Connection: Secret contacts between Israel and Morocco (Preface Efraim Halevy), Matar, January 2008), especially in the comprehensive chapter:: “Egoz” / “Mural” / “ Yakhin”.]

The one who was forgotten in all this was Littman, a hero of Operation Mural. Not only did he not request and has never received payment for his work - apart from the funding of his stay in Morocco - to this day he relates bitterly that, "After the operation, they offered me an invitation to Israel and a tour. I said to them: Don't waste your money. Just send me a thank-you letter. They didn't even do that. Three months after the operation had ended, the Jewish Agency held an exhibition in Geneva on the subject of immigration. They didn't even send me an invitation. That is why I told my wife that I didn't want to set foot in Israel. Only in 1964 did she manage to convince me to come anyway and Moshe Kol [then head of the Youth Immigration department at the Jewish Agency] insisted on honoring me."

[This is strange to be mentioned here. In fact, it was agreed that the JA would pay for my hotel, office, and ‘expenses’ incurred. I had never requested a salary for my work.]
But the public and official rectification of the injustice came only many years later. In 1986, on the 25th anniversary of the operation, a gathering was held in Tel Aviv [delete:Ashkelon] of all of the children who had immigrated in its context. The Littmans (who to this day live in Switzerland) were invited, they met with the now grown-up children and Littman was awarded an official certificate of recognition for his activity.

[This meeting with 120 (of 530) children took place on 15 May (via much publicity in the newspapers), two weeks after the 1 May 1986 Mimouna ‘Beyahad’ event in Sacher Park, Jerusalem, when then Prime Minister Shimon Peres honoured us both. The 2nd time was at Ashdod on 13 January 2004 when Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz gave me a certificate of recognition. The reference to Ashkelon concerns the “Jewish Eye” Film Festival when “Operation Mural” was screened on Opening Night, Wednesday, 14 November 2007.]

Interview with Daniel Pipes.......

2008-07-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

Interview with

Daniel Pipes

22.06.2008, Helsinki. By Iivi Anna Masso.

Daniel Pipes is a distinguished US scholar of the Middle East and the director of the think tank Middle East Forum (www.meforum.org). He has written and edited a dozen books about the Middle East and Islam, and is an active discussant on subjects such as Islamism as a political ideology, the American “War on terror” and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This interview is done in Helsinki, where Mr. Pipes visited briefly during Midsummer.

Q: European media often treats Israel as the rouge state of the region. It has been even suggested that the creation of the state was a mistake. Do you see Israel as a “rogue state”?

DP: It’s strange that one should have to argue that Israel’s not a rogue state, and that it is a state worthy of support, because it is by any standard a free state, a prosperous state, a state that has the rule of law. It is in short a Western state with the standard of living and the way of life similar to that one finds in Europe and very much different from that of its enemies – in the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iran and so forth. It is a turning around of the facts.

A Flash Eurobarometer poll in November 2003 established that Europeans saw Israel as the most dangerous state of the world. It’s an extraordinary view, one that reflects not on Israel but on the sorry state of European politics, a lack of knowledge about the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict, about who one’s allies are and who one’s enemies are, about problems and solutions. It is a very distressing development.

Q: Do you see the relationship between Europe and Israel getting better of worse?

DP: I think there has been some improvement in recent years, in particular with the change of government in a number of countries towards a more favorable one, most dramatically in France. But the reputation of Israel has been very low for some years now and it’ll take considerable work to see that changed.

Q: Do you think Hamas should be respected as a legitimate political force, because the Palestinian people supported it in democratic elections?

DP: Hamas is an Islamist movement that has heavily relied on terrorism to achieve its goals, and its primary goal is the elimination of Israel, its replacement by an Islamist order. It is terrorist and Islamist, it is the enemy. It is strange to me that anyone in the West should wish to support Hamas or help Hamas when it’s clearly not just the enemy of Israel but the enemy of the West as a whole. I think it’d be a great mistake to legitimize it and to deal with it.

Q: You wrote the foreword to a forthcoming book by Jonathan Schanzer about the conflict between Hamas and Fatah. Can that conflict be seen as part of the development of a Palestinian democracy?

DP: Hamas and Fatah share the same goals, both wish to eliminate Israel. But they have different approaches, different philosophies, different personnel, different tactics. So, sometimes they work together and sometimes they fight, there’s no permanent fight or a permanent cooperation, its fluid, it changes over time. At the moment it has been very bad for a couple of years but it could well improve.

Q: Is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict political (nationalist) or theological?

DP: Ultimately the Arab-Israeli conflict rests on a Muslim assumption that territory that has been ruled by Muslims must not be ruled by non-Muslims, that it is permanently Muslim territory. That a non-Muslim people should come, take it over, and rule it is deeply inimical.

That said, there have been four different stages of the Arab-Israeli conflict over the past century, four different stages of Arab approach. The first was pan-Syrian, to create a greater Syria; the second was pan-Arab, to create a greater Arab state, the third was Palestinian nationalist, and now the fourth is Islamist. There could be a fifth and a sixth. The key here is not the approach which changes every few decades, but rather the deep belief among Muslims that Israel is an illegitimate state because it is in a territory that for over a millenium was controlled by Muslims.

Q: Do you see an end to this conflict?

DP: I do see a possible end. I don’t see it going on forever, as no conflict goes on forever. I do see that it’s possibly going to end in 20-30 years, when the Palestinians are convinced that Israel is there and it’s permanent, and realize that there’s nothing they can do about that, accept it, and instead of trying to eliminate Israel will try to fix their own polity, economy, society and culture.

Islam

Q: You have written extensively about the distinction between Islam and “Islamism”, also called “militant Islam”, or “fundamentalism”. How do you explain the difference?

DP: Islam is a personal faith, and there are many different ways of understanding what it means to be a Muslim. One can be a Sufi, a mystic, one can be someone who lives by the law in a very strict way, one can be a nominal Muslim, who does not pay that much attention to his faith; all these and other ways are possible within the religion of Islam.

Islamism is a very specific approach, one that holds that Muslims would be powerful and rich were Muslims to follow the Islamic law in its complete detail. Islamists aspire to apply that law everywhere in the world, and see non-Muslims as inferior, and to be defeated. It’s an ideology that has its roots at the origins of Islam, but developed in its present state about 80 years ago. It is part of Islam, but not the whole of Islam.

Q: However, hard-line Muslims as well as some critics of Islam insist that you cannot be a real Muslim unless you follow the Islamic law – that would make the distinction between Islam and Islamism disappear?

DP: It is curious to note that Islamists and those who say that Islam itself is the problem both agree that I’m wrong, and that Islamism is Islam. The Islamists say that because they want to portray their version of Islam as the only one. And those who see Islam as the problem, conflate the religion and the ideology. I think it a mistake. Even if you believe that’s the case, and you’re a Westerner and a non-Muslim, I would argue that you’d have to adopt my point of view, because a Western government cannot fight Islam. Ours are not crusader states. Therefore, you have to fight the ideology of Islamism, not the religion of Islam. We know how to fight ideologies. We fought Fascism and Communism and now there’s Islamism. We can’t fight a religion. So if it’s reduced to a religion, then we lack the tools to protect ourselves.

Q: Would non-Islamist Islam mean a secularized, privatized Islam?

DP: Secularism means two different things. A secular person is one who is not religious. A secular society is one that divides religion from politics. Non-Islamist Islam needs not be secular in a personal sense; a person can be pious, but not Islamist. But it does mean secular in the latter sense, in that society divides politics from religion. For example, the Atatürk regime in Turkey is secular, you can be religious, but you cannot bring religion into the political sphere.

Q: What do you think about the term “Islamophobia” – it has been used a lot in Europe lately?

DP: “Islamophobia” is a fundamentally flawed notion, because the people who are worried about Islam are not phobic. “Phobic” implies they have an unjustified, wrongful dislike of something, whereas people who are worried about terrorism, about the imposition of the Islamic law, or the Sharia, are dealing with an actual set of problems. To call them names is both unfair and delegitimizing. Their concerns are real and legitimate, and need to be addressed.

Europe

Q: In a recent video interview you said about the future of Islam in Europe that there’s a 5% chance of harmony, and 47,5% chance for either Islam becoming dominant and Europeans reasserting control, and that the latter option might imply a civil strife? Would you explain what you mean?

DP: It’s striking to see that the default assumption of most Europeans is that somehow the European-Muslim relationship will work out. There may be problems today, but in the future it will be resolved. And yet I can’t see the sources of that optimism. If one looks at Muslims living in Europe one finds retreat rather than engagement. The children of the immigrants are more hostile toward existing European civilization than are the immigrants themselves. On the European side one finds increasing worry, concern, fear of the Muslim presence. So the hope that everyone will get along seems to be not based on reality. Therefore I give it a very low possibility of working out. Not zero, but minimal.

On the other hand, the alternatives between Muslim domination and European reassertion seem to me rather balanced. I can’t predict which of them is more likely to happen. Crises ahead that have not taken place, will help determine which way Europe goes.

Q: What kind of crises are to be expected, beyond those we have already seen?

DP: There have been small crises. The Rushdie affair. The Foulard affair. The pope affair. But these are not real crises. Little riots here and there. But nothing that has really led to major changes. So I think there’s a gap of five, ten, fifteen years to the future. I can’t predict but it could be something like the French riots of 2005, but far more violent – not burning cars but killing people. It could be the election of a government that could decide to send Muslim immigrants back to their home countries. I’m unable to predict the specific nature, I just think there are problems ahead that will show us which way Europe is likely to head.

Q: What could Europeans do to prevent a worse crisis?

DP: There are many steps that Europeans could take. For example, there is the step of integrating the Muslim immigrants. In general European countries are what I call large families. You are a member of a country because you come from the bloodline of that country, went to school there, and know its language, and share its religion. And now first time ever many European countries, indeed all European countries except France, are faced with the question: what does it mean to be Finnish, or Swedish, or Estonian. You did not have to explain that until now. Now you do. This is a crisis. I think it is a crisis that needs to be attended to. What does one do with people that look different, pray differently, eat differently? How does one create a nationality that includes them?

Also, Europeans need to have more children, if they’re going to sustain their civilisation. Your birthrates are very low now. Short of some significant increase, it’s hard to see how a century from now there will be a Europe that is still the Europe of today.

On the immigrant side, there needs to be a greater willingness to participate, and to accept the existence of the European civilisation, and not try to change it, but live within it.

Freedom of Speech

Q: You wrote a book about the “Rushdie Affair” in 1990, right after it happened. Now there have been several similar conflicts about “offending Islam” in the West. Has anything changed from Rushdie affair to today?

DP: The Rushdie affair came as a shock, because for the first time ever Muslims said what could and could not be written about, or stated, in the West. The other examples, of which there have been quite a few, have reiterated and confirmed that point. As time goes by, Muslims have become more determined to restrict free speech; they are going to the UN, for example, to have legal basis for prohibiting such speech. Westerners in general, Europeans in particular, are increasingly uneasy with such restrictions.

Q: With the pressure in the UN to ban “defamation of religion” worldwide, will the West just have to accept that in the increasingly intertwined and multicultural world the freedom of speech will not be what it used to be for at least the last decades?

DP: One can see a real reduction of the freedom of speech in many Western countries. One curious development took place in Saudi Arabia earlier this year when the Saudi Consultative Council was asked to confirm the idea that no criticism of religion could take place. But the Council rejected it, because the members noted it would recognize polytheistic religions, which they found “unacceptable”. So really what it’s meant to do is protect Islam, and I would be surprised if such legislation passed.

Q: So if the restriction of critique of religion would concern all equally, Muslims do actually not want it?

DP: Right.

Q: Regarding what we can and cannot say, you have written that the West itself, even the US have increasing problems naming the enemy in the “war on terror”?

DP: It is difficult for the modern Western person to speak bluntly about the problem of this sort. That results from a sense of confidence, and a feeling that it’s impolite and unnecessary to speak bluntly. It is enough to speak obliquely and carefully. However, I think it is necessary in a time of war to speak clearly about the identity of the enemy. If one traces, for example, President George W. Bush’s statements, one finds that they began very vaguely and then became more accurate and now they’ve become vague again. That’s rather typical of the West as a whole, in its uncertainty how to understand who the enemy is, and what the nature of this war is. That’s problematic. It’s now almost seven years since 9/11, it’s almost 30 years since the Iranian seizure of the American embassy in Teheran, and in all these years the US government still has not figured out who the enemy is, and what the problem is.

Q: How would you name the enemy?

DP: I would name the enemy as radical Islam or Islamism. It’s a movement, a body of ideas. Like Fascism and Communism.

Q: Has talking about this conflict become even harder during the last few years?

DP: There are so many conflicting currents. It’s hard for me to generalize, to say what the trend is, which way things are going. One could say that one finds a great deal of euphemism and indirect speech at this point and it’s not getting better.

Q: Before 9/11, even left-wing papers wrote about “Islamic Fascism”, now it seems unthinkable.

DP: One has seen an increase in a Left-Islamist alliance. It goes back to Michel Foucault’s visit to Teheran in 1978-79. He was very exited to see what was taking place. And initially his view met with considerable resistance on the left, but with time that resistance has eroded. I think the major event was in February 2003 when throughout Europe Islamists and leftists organized together against the forthcoming war in Iraq. This created the basis of the bond.

One finds they have the same opponents – they oppose the same ideas and institutions, countries and people. They are not in favor of the same thing, but they’re against the same things. So they’re not really deep allies, they don’t have a strategic co-operation, they have a tactical co-operation. One finds it over and over again throughout the West.

Interestingly one does not find it in the Muslim world. For example in Turkey, if you were against the Islamists in the elections a year ago, you voted for the Left. Over and over again one finds that the Left and the Isamists in Egypt, Pakistan, elsewhere are opposed to each other. But in the West, they work close together, and not just the West: in India too, one finds the same thing. And it is very troubling. It is an alliance that is comparable to the Hitler-Stalin alliance, that was a brown-red alliance and this is a green-red alliance, green in the sense of the color of Islam. It’s a great danger to the civilized world.

Q: This alliance is particularly confusing because the goals of the Islamist movement look rather like far right than left.

DP: If you look at it as a negative, then you understand it better than when you try to see what they have in common. They don’t have principles in common. Socialism, gender equality and elief in God are not in common. But if you look at what they are against – George W. Bush is a symbol of it, but more broadly Western civilization, specifically the US, the UK, Israel, Jews, practicing Christians, globalization – that is what they are against.

Q: So when academic, pro-gay-rights feminists declare Hamas and Hizbollah “progressive”, this is what it is about – a common enemy?

DP: Feminists who ignore what Islam says do so because that is tactically useful at the moment. Like in Iran in the 1970s, the Left and the Islamists worked together against the shah. Once they defeated the shah, they had completely opposite goals, and one defeated the other. So this is tactical, it’s just so long as the opponent is there. But if the opponent would be defeated, then their differences would come out, as each works for its own very different goals.

US politics

Q: What do you think about the term “neo-consevative”? Would you accept it describing yourself?

DP: I’m ambivalent. Neoconservatives may number 40 or 50 in the world. It’s not exactly a big movement. And they are considered to have so much power. So I’d rather like the idea of being one of them. On the other hand, when you look at specific policies, such as the war in Iraq, or the effort rapidly to democratize the Middle East, I’ve real differences. So I don’t think that the term fits me.

Q: You have recently written about the possibility of US attacking Iran. In this conflict, Europe again sees the US as the main potential aggressor.

DP: Europeans have the luxury of not having to make hard decisions. Because they know that the US will be there and do it for them, and then they can criticize the US. I think that the US has made a mistake since World War II of taking on too much responsibility. I think we should have said vis-a-vis the Soviets and others: Look, if you don’t think we are doing this correct, then you do it. If you don’t like it, if you don’t want Pershing missiles in 1981-82, fine – you figure out your relationship with the Soviet. And now it’s the same thing: if you think Iran having missiles is fine, ok – we won’t protect you. That would create a much greater sense of realism. But unfortunately, as it is, we take initiative, and then others criticize us for that. It would be far more constructive for Europeans to have to make hard decisions themselves than simply criticize us. We Americans are making Europeans act as children who don’t have to make key decisions, they are made for them. I don’t think that is healthy for Europeans or ourselves.

Q: Would tightened European integration make Europe a more “grown up” unit?

DP: I believe European Union has its limits. I think it’s useful economic and political union, but I don’t think it should try to be more than a confederation. I don’t think it should become a single state. That would be a mistake, given the history of Europe. Turning EU into a military unit would also be a mistake. I think NATO is far better.

Q: In what sense is the upcoming US presidential election important for the world?

Barack Obama would turn US government policy into European policy. The US would be another European polity as opposed to what it has been at least for decades. So it’s a very fundamental set of choices – more fundamental than any time since 1972, when [the Democratic candidate] George McGovern also had a left-wing, European approach.

Bat Ye'or Interview.......

2008-07-10T03:04:00.000-07:00

Jul 9, 2008 20:35 Updated Jul 10, 2008 9:08
One on One:

A 'dhimmi' view of Europe

By RUTHIE BLUM

'I always thought I'd be writing novels," says Bat Ye'or, her wistfulness somehow adding an extra touch of class to her thick French accent. "Not such serious work."

Given the gravity of her subject matter, and what some might consider her alarmist way with words, this is hard to believe. But then, so is the historian's life story, which is the stuff that sagas are made of.

Hers began in Egypt during World War II. The daughter of a middle-class Jewish family named Orebi, Bat Ye'or (her trademark pseudonym, which in Hebrew means "daughter of the Nile") fled with her parents to England in 1957 - after suffering the brunt of the anti-Semitism she claims characterized the entire Arab world.

In 1959, she married a Briton - also a historian - whom she prefers not to name, to protect his and her privacy. The couple then moved to and settled in Switzerland in 1960, where they raised their children and continue to reside.

She is the author of eight books, including The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians under Islam (1985); The Decline of Eastern Christianity: From Jihad to Dhimmitude (1996); Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide (2001); and - the one which captured international attention and catapulted her into the center of controversy - Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis (2005). Saying that Europe is basically finished, due to its kissing up to the Arabs, will do that.

Here recently to promote the release of her best-selling "cautionary tale" in Hebrew (EuroArabia, Schocken Publishers; translation by Arie Hashavia), Bat Ye'or explains why she believes the West in general, and Europe in particular, is in state of denial at best, and dhimmitude at worst. To make matters more complicated, she asserts, though the citizens of European countries long to preserve their individual and collective cultures of freedom and democracy - which they have been exhibiting at the polls - the European Union, influenced by the UN-backed Islamic leadership, advocates appeasement and passivism.

In an hour-long interview on the terrace of her Mishkenot Sha'ananim digs overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, Bat Ye'or expounds on her bleak prognosis in an articulate tirade, raising her voice now and then for emphasis, pausing occasionally to laugh. What she has to say about the state of the world, however, is more likely to make one cry.

Why do you use a pseudonym?

For many reasons. First of all, when I left Egypt and started living in Europe, I found that I had changed - that I was no longer the person I had been before.

Secondly, I have always preferred to keep my personal and professional lives separate. I have always wanted my social standing to be distinct from my being the wife of my husband, the daughter of my parents and the mother of my children. It is a matter of independence.

Why did your family leave Egypt?

We left as part of the big exodus of Jews from Arab-Muslim countries. Jews suffered from severe anti-Semitism, especially in Egypt. There was a powerful Nazi community, established by [then Egyptian president Gamal Abdel] Nasser. There were many anti-Jewish laws. There was a general feeling of insecurity. There was open hatred expressed by the Muslim Brotherhood, especially in relation to the Palestine issue. As early as World War II - particularly after the November 1945 pogroms in Egypt - Jews began leaving the country. Many went to Israel. At that time there was a Zionist underground. Zionism was made a criminal offense for which you could be jailed or even tortured. So, many young people left. For the old people, of course, it was difficult, because many were members of the bourgeoisie, and it was forbidden for Jews to take any money or assets out of the country when they left. My parents' assets were confiscated, for example, which created economic problems for our family.

Are you saying that as World War II ended, and in Europe Nazism became taboo, it was gaining strength in the Arab world?

Yes, but even before and throughout the war, both Nazism and fascism were strong in the Arab world. Hitler and Mussolini were heroes. The whole Middle East was in turmoil because the Arab-Muslim populations were all favorable to Nazism and anti-Semitic policies.

How much of what was going on in the death camps in Europe were you and other Jews in Egypt aware of at the time?

We knew everything. I remember my parents listening very carefully to the radio. And it was also in the newspaper. But also, my mother's family was in France, and they were forced to wear the yellow star. So we knew.

When you heard about the peace treaty that Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin signed with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1979, how did you feel?

I wasn't following it that carefully, due to family problems. Nor was I familiar with Israeli politics at the time. But I trusted Begin to do the best thing for Israel. So, I did have hope. Still, what you have to understand is that the problem is much larger than Egypt. The whole Muslim world is becoming more and more radicalized - more rooted in Shari'a, and less open to anything outside the religion. This is due to the policies of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), with 57 Islamic member states and a permanent delegation to the UN. At its last summit in December 2005, it decided upon a 10-year plan, one of whose resolutions was to root the Islamic uma - the world Muslim community - in the Koran and the [oral tradition of the] Hadith, which, of course, means Wahabbism. They also resolved to make the Palestinian issue the central issue of international politics. This is why we see relentless pressure on Israel from different countries. Because the OIC is an extremely powerful body, demographically, politically and economically.

The OIC is an Islamic body. How has it managed to turn the Palestinian issue into a Western focus? And to what do you attribute the political and cultural success of its ideology in Europe and the United States?

First of all, a distinction has to be made here between Europe and America, which have chosen opposite paths in relation to the Middle East.

As for OIC influence on Europe: It is visible in immigration policy toward Muslims, and in the Muslims' refusal to integrate into European societies.

The OIC considers nationalist-European movements, European history, European culture, European religions and European languages as Islamophobic. Why? Because Europeans have begun to feel that they are losing their own identity, due to their efforts to welcome immigrants who don't want to integrate. As a result, they have adopted measures to stop illegal immigration, to control legal immigration and to curb terrorism. Europeans fear losing their historical and cultural assets - particularly those of democracy and human rights - to Shari'a law. They want one law for everybody - and it's not Shari'a, which involves things like honor killings. It is thus that in all international forums, the OIC attacks Europe and demands that it apply multiculturalism.

Now, Europeans do not want multiculturalism. But this is a problem, because European governments - and especially the European Union - do not want to fight the OIC, and so they collaborate with it. Therefore, what we have inside Europe is a clash of interests between the European citizens and their governments.

A similar claim is often made about Muslim-Arab citizens and their governments - that a majority of the former is moderate, while the latter is extremist. Do you agree with this assessment?

No, I don't agree with it at all. In fact, the opposite is the case. In the Arab world, it is the governments - as we see so well in Egypt - that are at the mercy of the radicalized, Islamized, anti-Western, anti-American and anti-Israel masses who are in a dynamic of jihad. Certainly the majority of Muslims follow the ideology of conquest; it is in the Koran and the Hadith! And every time they go to the mosque, they hear it. I mean, the first shura, that is recited five times a day, is anti-Christian and anti-Jewish. So they cannot escape from it.

Unfortunately, the Muslims who are against this trend don't have the courage to make the effort to change it. And those who do have the courage are threatened with losing their jobs and having harm done to them and their families. So Islamism is the natural culture of the Arab-Muslim world. Even in Turkey an Islamist government has taken over. So, how can we deny the reality? And anyway, if the moderates were in the majority, they would be making protests and issuing manifestos against Osama bin Laden, instead of against America and Israel.

The environment is one of jihad on the one hand and of dhimmitude [the state of being a non-Muslim subject living in a country governed by Shari'a law] on the other. European countries are becoming dhimmi countries, and people don't realize it, because they don't know what jihad and dhimmitude are, so they don't recognize what condition they're in. When you have an illness, but are unfamiliar with its symptoms, you don't know that you are sick. You feel sick, but you don't know what you've got. You therefore can't make a diagnosis or embark upon a method of treatment to cure yourself. This is the current condition of Western civilization right now.

How, then, do you explain the electoral victories of France's Nicolas Sarkozy, Germany's Angela Merkel, Italy's Silvio Berlusconi and London's replacement of mayor Ken Livingstone by Boris Johnson? Wouldn't you consider this phenomenon as indicative that Europeans are making a diagnosis of and seeking a cure to the illness you say they suffer from?

Oh yes, they are extremely important developments which prove what I am saying about European citizens having had enough of this attempt to merge - culturally, religiously and demographically - the Arab and European sides of the Mediterranean. But the pressure exerted by the OIC on European governments is very strong. In addition, there is the pressure of terrorism inside and out of Europe, and that of the oil. So the task of these new governments you refer to will not be easy, to say the least. I don't doubt their good intentions. But I don't know if they will succeed in bringing about the change their citizens want.

Furthermore, unlike President Bush - who recognizes that Israel has a legitimate right to exist as a normal nation in its homeland - the Europeans think that Israel's legitimacy should be granted by the Palestinians and the Arab states. In other words, Europe is putting Israel into a position of dhimmitude, whereby it will be recognized by Muslims if it abides by certain rules and duties.

This is in keeping with its own mentality. When the European community, in December 1973, published its document on European identity in the Copenhagen Declaration, they themselves were adopting a dhimmi mentality toward the Arab League countries. After World War II, Europeans decided that they didn't want any more wars. Then, when they suffered aggression, such as the oil boycott and Palestinian terrorism that emerged in Europe in the late 1960s, instead of fighting, they joined their aggressors. This was their concept of multilateralism - thinking that by joining those who attacked them, they would be protected. This is when a tremendous Muslim immigration into Europe began.

You keep referring to immigration. Isn't childbirth also a demographic factor, particularly since Muslims tend to have many children, while some European countries suffer from zero or minus population growth? Is it possible that by virtue of their numbers, Muslims in Europe are influencing policy - and that it is not just due to the power of the OIC?

Yes, but you have to understand that those who plan policy are Europeans. In other words, Muslim politics are conducted in Europe by Europeans themselves, based on the interests of Muslim lobbyists.

Isn't Eastern Europe different from Western Europe in this respect?

Yes, and Eastern Europe is more pro-American than Western Europe - which is what the Muslims want. It is easier to take over the West as a whole when it's divided.

How has this affected European academia?

European universities - like those in America - are totally controlled by the Arab-Islamic lobby, as are the schools. A teacher who attempts to teach according to the European view of history is thrown out. Indeed, the freedom of expression and thought that has been so crucial for European democracy has disappeared.

Many Israeli academics bemoan a similar situation in Israel. Do you see the mind frame you're describing infiltrating the Jewish state?

Yes, because the EU is spending a lot of money on Israeli NGOs in order to promote policies which will lead to the destruction of Israel. The EU considers Israel to be an accident of history that has to disappear. It thinks that if Israel disappears, relations between Europe and the Arab world will be much better. Now, the EU doesn't come out and actually say this, but all its policies, statements and actions are indicative of its aims. These aims could be developed in Israel and in America - especially when there is a new president.

Speaking of which, there is a concern among many Jews and Israelis that if Barack Obama becomes president, he will lean toward the kind of alliance with the Arab world that the EU promotes.

Yes, because he has a kind of "Third Worldism" - you know, the view that we all have to get together and appease the enemy. I'm no specialist on Obama. But I think that Bush has been a great politician, and that history will show he was right. Aside from everything else, he has woken up Europe to the calamity of global terrorism - and this is what brought about the coming to power of Merkel, Sarkozy and Berlusconi. And Europe can no longer be as anti-American.
That's ironic, isn't it, considering that most Americans now hate Bush?
That's because they don't understand what is really going on.

Given your bleak view of Europe, how is it that you didn't end up living in Israel or the US?

I love Europe. It is part of my family history and my culture. I can criticize it because I love it and want to help it. Look what Europe has given to the world: democracy and human rights, the love of peace. Look at its achievements in the field of literature, music, law, architecture. There is a tremendous richness. But we have to fight for all those values and accomplishments. Otherwise, we will be living as dhimmis in barbarity.

Finally, how do you envision Western civilization 10 years from now? The Mishna says, "You are not required to finish the task, but neither are you free to desist from it."

Well, I feel that though I may not have done enough, I have tried the best I could. As for the future, it is difficult to say, but we must have hope. We have to educate the European, American and Israeli youth to recover their culture and values, since it is they who will have to continue the efforts to preserve freedom and democracy - and they who will have to fight to defend them.

Palestinian Authority Libel: Prisoners are used for Nazi-like medical experiments

2008-07-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

Introduction: The Palestinian Authority is intensifying its longstanding blood libel campaign against Israel, falsely accusing Israel of conducting horrific Nazi-like medical experiments on Palestinian prisoners. These fabrications have been featured repeatedly in the Palestinian Authority's official newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, which is under the direct authority of Mahmoud Abbas. In the past week alone there were three new examples of this libel:

"The method employed by the Israeli Occupation in which they [are] instigating slow death ... doctors in Israeli prison clinics use the prisoners as guinea pigs for clinical drug testing under the pretense of 'treatment.'" [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 6, 2008]

"Many of the male and female inmates received injections from needles they had not seen before, and which caused their hair and facial hair to fall out permanently ... others lost their sanity, or their mental condition is constantly deteriorating... and some are suffering from infertility." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 4, 2008]

"The doctors in these prison clinics are using the prisoners as guinea pigs for clinical testing of drugs and treatment-methods." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 3, 2008]

Giving voice to blood libels and slandering Israel are essential tools used by the Palestinian Authority to demonize Israel and to inflame hatred against Israel, especially on the highly sensitive subject of Palestinian prisoners. It is therefore not surprising that the Palestinian public places the release of Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons as a national cause, and justifies all means -- including the abduction of Israeli soldiers - to free the prisoners from their supposed mistreatment.

Al-Hayat Al-Jadida has attested that reports about such "experiments" performed on Palestinian prisoners serve to "mobilize each and every human-being as such... to actively participate in activities aimed at their release and their return to freedom, properly meant as a return to life... all of us! all of us! all of us! - to confront the enemy in the war it wages." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 3, 2007]

These new accusations build on earlier libels that Israel conducts the same kind of experiments on Palestinian prisoners as the Nazis did in the concentration camps:

"We have many examples of experiments conducted by the Nazis, but we shall bring one example that exhibits a great similarity [to the Israeli experiments]: They would insert poisons into the prisoners' food in order to study the effect of the poisons on people, with the purpose of performing autopsies on the bodies of those who died from the poison. He mentioned multiple cases of the mass poisoning of Palestinian and Arab prisoners in several Israeli prisons and detention centers. He did not rule out the possibility that the mass poisonings were done deliberately." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 1, 2007].

Furthermore, the libel adds that Israel is deliberately laboring "to increase the suffering of the prisoners and to murder them slowly, or to render them hollow, fragile and sickly bodies that will be a burden to their families and their nation after their release..." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept.1, 2007].

According to the libel, because Israel views the prisoners as guinea pigs, "the terrible crime, unimaginably horrific, that was committed by the executioner jailers of the occupation forces... demonstrated that the prisoner is treated like a lab -mouse." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 3, 2007].

In an attempt to increase the credibility of the libel about the treatment of prisoners, the Palestinian Authority daily last week repeated a media invention from a previous article. It said that Dalia Itzik, Speaker of the Knesset, said in 1997 that Israel conducts "thousands of medical clinical trials," and that "experiments with dangerous drugs are performed each year on Palestinian prisoners." The story also rehashed the fabrication that an Israeli named Amy Laftat, who was presented as Head of the Pharmaceutical Division in the Ministry of Health, reported that "there is a 15% annual increase in the number of permits granted by her office for conducting research on dangerous medications on Palestinians" [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 4, 2008].

Palestinian Media Watch checked with Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik and the Ministry of Health, and confirmed that these statements were never made, and in fact that there is no one named Amy Laftat working for the Pharmaceutical Division. (The Israeli responses are below). Following are more complete texts of the Prisoners Libel, as promoted by the Palestinian Authority's official Daily, al-Hayat al-Jadida:

1: "Prisoners lost their eyesight and the functionality of their nervous system"

"The Occupation forces continue to conduct medical experiments on Palestinian and Arab prisoners in their prisons, in defiance of every international treaty and code of ethics. This is not limited to their policy of medical neglect, but rather the violations even extend to exploitive use of the prisoners as testing subjects for pharmaceutical drugs. Dalia Itzik, then a member of the Israeli Knesset and head of the Science Committee in the Israeli parliament, revealed in July 1997 that thousands of medical clinical trials, experiments with dangerous drugs are performed each year on Palestinian prisoners. At that time, she added that her office held thousands of permits issued by the Israeli Health Ministry for large Israeli pharmaceutical companies permitting the performance of thousands of clinical trials on Palestinian and Arab prisoners in Israeli prisons.

Additionally, 'Amy Laftat,' Head of the Pharmaceutical Division in the Israeli Health Ministry, revealed before the Knesset in that same meeting that there is a 15% annual increase in the number of permits granted by her office for conducting research with dangerous drugs on Palestinians and Arabs in the Israeli prisons.

It should be mentioned that many of the male and female prisoners were given shots from needles they had not seen beforehand, and which caused their hair and facial hair to fall out permanently, and there were other prisoners who lost their eyesight and the functionality of their nervous system, and others who lost their sanity, or whose mental condition is constantly deteriorating, and still others who suffer from infertility and are unable to bear children, etc. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 4, 2008]

2. "Doctors in Israel use the prisoners as guinea pigs under the pretense of "treatment""Abu Al-Hajj [Director of the Abu-Jihad Center for Prisoner Affairs in Al-Quds University] referred back to the period of the British Mandate and its usual method of execution - using the hanging noose that is on display in the museum ... Fahd Abu Al-Hajj went on to mention the subsequent method employed by the Israeli Occupation, in which they finish off by instigating slow death, which the prisoners suffer at the hands of the prison authorities. He added that as a result of this method, 226 prisoners have died as shahids (martyrs) in the prisons... Abu Al-Hajj pointed to the fact that... clinic doctors in Israeli prisons are using the prisoners as guinea pigs under the pretense of "treatment."[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 6, 2008]

3. "The prisoner is treated like a lab mouse."

Heading: "Drugs and Lab-Mice" ..."The reports came gushing in... of the terrible crime, unimaginably horrific, that was committed by the executioner jailers of the occupation forces; the occupation forces used several of the freedom prisoners as lab accessories for conducting medical trials. This crime committed by the occupiers demonstrates... that the prisoner is treated like a lab mouse - who will either be killed by an inappropriate drug, or will be hurt by an electrical shock. Otherwise the experiment should inflict a permanent disability or deformity upon him... this is something that mobilizes each and every human-being as such... to actively participate in activities aimed at their release and their return to freedom, properly meant as a return to life... all of us! all of us! all of us! - to confront the enemy in the war it wages against those of us who are alive and those who are dead"...[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 3, 2007]

4. "Prisoners as guinea pigs for drug and treatment clinical testing."

Headline: "Reports given by two lawyers after visiting [prisons] indicate an increase in the policy of provoking the prisoners".The director of the Center for the Defense of Freedoms and Civil Rights, "Hurriyat", Hilmi Al-Araj said that the reports given by the two lawyers from the center, Ibtisam Al-Anati and Raed Al-Zabi, clearly point to a documented increase in the Israeli Prison Authority's policy of provoking the male and female prisoners and of treating them inhumanely; this includes, most notably, a policy requiring the prisoners [to wear] an orange garment, and the use doctors in these prison clinics make of the prisoners as guinea pigs for drug and treatment clinical testing." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 3, 2008]

5. "Most suffer infertility problems, others have lost their eyesight."

Headline: "Most suffer infertility problems, others have lost their eyesight and their sanity after the occupation has injected them with unidentified substances and drugs - Israel continues to use prisoners as guinea pigs for pharmaceutical drug-testing.""Abd Al-Nasser Piroanah, researcher and head of the Statistical Department in the [Palestinian] Ministry of Prisoner and Released Prisoner Affairs, said in his report that the Occupation Authorities conduct clinical testing on Palestinian and Arab prisoners in prisons, in defiance of every international treaty and code of ethics.

The general tragic state of the prisons escapes no one, and the medical situation all the more so... In order to increase the suffering of the prisoners and to murder them slowly, or to render them hollow, fragile and sickly bodies that will be a burden to their families and their nation after their release...

Further, he stated: This is not limited to their policy of medical neglect, but rather the violations even extend to exploitive use of the prisoners as testing subjects for pharmaceutical drugs.

Knesset Member Dalia Itzik and former Head of the Science Committee revealed in July 1997 that thousands of medical clinical trials, experiments with dangerous drugs are performed each year on Palestinian prisoners. At that time, she added that her office held thousands of permits issued by the Israeli Health Ministry for large Israeli pharmaceutical companies permitting the performance of thousands of clinical trials on Palestinian and Arab prisoners in Israeli prisons. Additionally, 'Amy Laftat,' Head of the Pharmaceutical Division in the Israeli Health Ministry, revealed ... that there is a 15% annual increase in the number of permits granted by her office for conducting research with dangerous drugs on Palestinians and Arabs in the Israeli prisons.

The researcher concluded that this crime is only becoming more widespread... under the auspices of the Israeli Health Ministry ... These crimes reflect clearly on the degree of racism which abounds in the Israeli system as a whole... He brought many examples of male and female prisoners who were given injections from needles they had not seen before, and which caused their hair and facial hair to fall out permanently, and there were other prisoners who lost their eyesight and the functionality of their nerve system, and others who lost their sanity, or whose mental condition is constantly deteriorating, and still others who suffer from infertility and so forth...

Piroanah mentioned that the first to use prisoners for medical experiments were the Nazis, who did it in the detention centers of the German army during WWII...
He added: We have many examples of experiments conducted by the Nazis, but we shall bring one example that exhibits a great similarity [to the Israeli experiments]: They would insert poisons into the prisoners' food in order to study the effect of the poisons on people and with the purpose of performing autopsies on the bodies of those who died from the poison. He mentioned multiple cases of the mass poisoning of Palestinian and Arab prisoners in several Israeli prisons and detention centers. He did not rule out the possibility that the mass poisonings were done deliberately.

He said the Ministry of Prisoner Affairs has been conducting activities in the past months... aimed at pressuring international opinion to act urgently and to adhere to its moral and human responsibility to save the prisoners... and to investigate the serious medical circumstances found in Israeli prisons, and to bring the war criminals to international courts." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 1, 2007]

6. "Clinics are nothing but open grounds for experimenting with dangerous drugs.""Dr Awda emphasized that health conditions in Israeli prisons are bad and dangerous... She emphasized that the clinics are nothing but open grounds for experimenting with dangerous drugs on the sick prisoners. She proved this with a statement given by the Head of the Knesset Science Committee Dalia Itzik on July 10, 1997, in which she claimed that every year 1000 clinical trials of dangerous pharmaceutical drugs are conducted using Palestinian prisoners as subjects." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 17, 2008]

Israeli Officials Respond Office of Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik: "Knesset Speaker Itzik never made the statements attributed to her. Knesset Speaker Itzik is certain that incidents of this kind do not occur in Israel; this is not how Israel conducts itself." Ministry of Health's Response: "Clinical testing on prisoners in prison was never approved, never performed, and is most certainly not taking place at present. Furthermore, there is no person named Amy Laftat working for the Pharmaceutical Division.

Kuoleman Ideologia

2008-03-08T01:11:00.000-08:00

Myönnettäköön, että en tule koskaan tottumaan siihen näkyyn, kun ihmiset hurraavat ja juhlivat toisten viattomien ihmisten julmaa ja veristä kuolemaa, olivatpa olosuhteet sitten mitkä tahansa. Tähän näkyyn meitä on kuitenkin totutettu katsauksissa Lähi-itään liittyvään konfliktiin. Niin Israelissa tapahtuneisiin terrori-iskuihin kuin Yhdysvalloissa tapahtuneeseen vuoden 2001 terrori-iskujen sarjaan liittyvät unohtumattomat kuvat juhlivista ihmisistä kaduilla ampumassa ilmaan ja jakamassa lapsille karamelleja tapausten kunniaksi.

Kun länsimaiset äidit ja isät toivovat lapsilleen pitkää ikää, ovat islamilaisen fundamentalismin aivopesun kohteiksi joutuneet äidit ottaneet meille käsittämättömän elämän asenteen; heille on kunniaksi se, jos mahdollisimman moni heidän lapsistaan kuolisi marttyyrina ja tappaisi siinä ohessa mahdollisimman monta vääräuskoista. Näin on tapahtunut lukuisia kertoja Israelissa, Irakissa ja sittemmin myös meidän omalla maaperällämme Euroopassa Lontoon ja Madridin terrori-iskujen myötä. Yhä käsittämättömämmäksi tilanteen tekee se, että suurin osa näistä itsemurha-iskijöistä oli lähtöisin varakkaasta tai vähintään keskiluokkaisesta perheestä. Useat heistä ovat olleet korkeasti koulutettuja. Perustelut siihen, että terrorismi juontaa juurensa köyhyydestä, alkaa yhä enemmissä määrin olemaan hataralla pohjalla.

Viimeisin lisäys tähän surulliseen kuoleman ideologian jatkumoon on torstai-iltana Jerusalemin Kiryat Moshessa tapahtunut terrori-isku, jossa on tähän mennessä kuollut 8 siviiliä. Jälleen kerran Gazassa ja Libanonissa Hizbollahin joukoissa juhlittiin. Miksi tämä terroristi astui varmaan kuolemaan, vieden mukanaan syyttömiä sivullisia? Syy ei voi olla Israelin Gazan miehityksessä, sillä Israel ei ole enää vuoden 2005 jälkeen miehittänyt Gazaa. Sen sijaan Hamas on ottanut Gazassa lähes täyden hallinnan, ja on käyttänyt tämän valta-asemansa laajentaakseen terrorismia israelilaisiin siviilikohteisiin.

Syy ei myöskään voi olla kurja elämäntilanne, sillä kyse oli henkilöstä joka oli itä-Jerusalemilainen Israelin arabi, nauttien kaikkia Israelin kansalaisuuden tuomia etuoikeuksia. Syynä ei myöskään voi olla ns. "laittomat siirokunnat", sillä ne eivät olleet Arafatin aikanakaan este rauhalle. Oslon sopimuksessa siirtokuntien kohtalosta oli itse asiassa päästy yhteisymmärrykseen.

Ja mitä sitten, vaikka nämä edellä mainitut olisivatkin "häirinneet" mainittua terroristia? Voiko mikään oikeuttaa viattomien tappamiseen? Voiko väkivallalla saavuttaa rauhaa? Ja voiko syyttömien kuolema koskaan, missään olosuhteissa, olla juhlan aihe?

Olen itse asunut sekä itä- , että Länsi-Jerusalemissa. Itä-Jerusalem on juutalais - ja arabiasutuksiin jakautunut alue niin sanotun Vihreän Linjan seudulla, jossa muslimien rukouskutsut soivat perjantaisin ja kaupat menevät kiinni sapatiksi. Jokaisena viikonloppuna arabialueilta kuului ilotulitusta ja ampumista jonkin onnellisen hääparin kunniaksi samalla kun juutalaiset olivat hiljentyneet omilla asuinalueillaan perhekeskeiseen sapatin viettoon.

Toisaalta Länsi-Jerusalem jäi mieleeni länsimaisena asuinalueena jolla oli tosin omaleimainen uskonnollisen juutalaisuuden sävy. Sapatteina koko Länsi-Jerusalem lähes pysähtyi. Ortodoksiset juutalaiset aloittivat sapattia varten valmistautumisen jo torstai-iltana menemällä Yeshivoihin lukemaan Tooraa. Asuin vain muutaman kilometrin päässä Kiryat Moshesta, jossa viimeisin terrori-isku tapahtui. Voin kuvitella, että siellä oli edellä mainitsemani kaltainen torstai-ilta käynnissä terroristin aloittaessa hurjan tulituksensa.

Koraania on tulkittu monin tavoin, mutta valitettavasti siinä on jakeita jotka kehottavat suoranaiseen väkivaltaan kristittyjä ja juutalaisia kohtaan, tulkitsisipa niitä miten tahansa. Nämä jakeet ovat valjastettu nykypäivän Jihadismiksi, jossa taistellaan ensinnäkin juutalaisvaltion olemassaoloa vastaan, ja sen jälkeen myös koko ei-islamilaista maailmaa kohtaan. Määränpäänä ei ole vähempi, kuin koko maailman saavuttaminen islamin alaisuuteen. Ensin Israel, sitten muu Eurooppa jne. Merkittävää on myös se, että islam kieltää muslimeja tekemästä pysyvää rauhaa vääräuskoisten kanssa. Tämän pitäisi selittää paljon.

Valitettavasti olemme aikakaudessa, jolloin ääri-islam nostaa päätään ei pelkästään Lähi-idässä, vaan maailmanlaajuisesti. Tulituskohteena ei ole pelkästään Israel ja juutalaiset, vaan koko länsimainen elämäntyyli. Palestiinalaisen Hamas - järjestön televisio pyrkii sumeilematta aivopesemään seuraavaa sukupolvea tätä taistelua varten. Ensin tuli Mikki Hiiren irvikuva Farfour - hiiri, joka kehotti palestiinalaislapsia vihaamaan juutalaisia. Kansainvälinen paheksunta johti Farfour - hiiren hyllyttämiseen, joka toteutettiin siten, että lapsille uskoteltiin juutalaisten tappaneen Farfourin. Uusin versio tälle sairaalle propagandalle on kuitenkin jo ilmestynyt Assud- kaniinin muodossa, joka kehottaa lapsia tappamaan tanskalaiset, vastineena pilakuva- kohulle.

Toisaalta Hizbollah ja useat muutkin Israelin tuhoamiseen itsensä pyhittäneet järjestöt ovat organisoineet omat kampanjansa lapsien aivopesuun. He eivät kasvata lapsiaan rauhaan ja elämään, vaan sotaan ja kuolemaan. Kuolemalla on ääri-islamissa hyvä kaiku, koska ainoastaan marttyyrit ansaitsevat varmuudella paikan paratiisissa. Vain marttyyrikuoleman kautta voi ihminen olla varma pelastuksestaan.

Sen lisäksi hänen perheensä saa osakseen suuren maallisen kunnian yhteisönsä keskellä, ja mainittavan arvoisen rahallisen palkkion. Marttyyrien nimet nostetaan kunniaan ja heidän urotekoaan kerrotaan lapsille ja lastenlapsille. Nämä ihmispolot huijataan tappamaan itsensä ja muut uskonnollisin perustein, jotta järjestöjen poliititset intressit toteutuisivat. Silti esimerkiksi EU on kieltäytynyt nimeämästä monia näitä järjestöjä terroristi-järjestöjen listalle. Mikä häpeä.

Koska tulee aika, jolloin EU ja koko läntinen maailma tuomitsevat tämän järkyttävän lasten ja yleisten ihmisoikeuksien polkemisen? Milloin tulee se päivä, kun meidän päättäjämme tuomitsevat suoralta kädeltä tämän "kuoleman ideologian" ja sen sijaan kehottavat näitä ääri-islamilaisia järjestöjä valmistamaan lapsiansa elämää ja suvaitsevaisuutta varten? Pelkään, että mikäli emme pian tätä tuomiota lausu, joudumme itse sen uhreiksi. Kyse ei ole vain juutalaisten ja arabien välisestä käsirysystä. Kyse on demokratiasta, uskonnonvapaudesta ja .. viime kädessä... elämästä itsestään.

Tällä hetkellä varsinkin Hamasin hallinnoiman Gazan alueella on kasvamassa kokonainen pienten terroristien armeija, jotka eivät ole koskaan saaneet kuulla lausetta "sinun elämäsi on kallisarvoinen ja korvaamaton." He elävät kuolemaa varten. Meidän tulisi tuomita terrorismi jo näiden viattomien, aivopestyjen lasten tähden.

Wall knocked down at the Rafah crossing: “The price for a ton of TNT has gone down.”

2008-02-08T03:13:00.000-08:00

Der Spiegel, no. 6, 2008

Middle East

THE MARCH ON EREZ

Anxiety about rocket attacks in Israel
Hamas jubilation in Cairo; Knocking down Gaza border wall proven major success for Islamists

by Amira El Ahl and Christoph Schult

It’s been raining since early morning and the wet desert sand has transformed the main street of the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing into a muddy morass along which Chinese motorcycles, herds of goats, and pickup trucks carrying gas cans make their slippery way toward Gaza. Standing on the edge of the road, Hamad Kischta lights a cigarette and talks about prices.

“Everything’s gotten very cheap now,” says the Palestinian. Up until a week ago, the members of his clan were active smugglers, but now, with a huge hole punched in the wall between Gaza and Egypt, the value of the tunnels under the dunes has plummeted. “Kalashnikovs are going for only $300,” laments Kischta, “and the price of TNT has dropped from $15,000 to $5,000 per ton.”

One week after the opening of the border, Gaza’s Islamic Hamas government went on a weapons shopping spree and established a massive armory. As a result, instead of homemade Kassam rockets that are a threat to Israeli border towns, the country may now face rocket attacks with foreign made weapons that can reach large Israeli cities such as Ashkelon. “More Russian-grade rockets arrived in Gaza yesterday,” notes Kischta.

And yet this new threat along one of the world’s most conflict-ridden borders has garnered little attention. What has been etched into TV viewers’ minds instead are images of tens of thousands of Palestinians surging through the hole in the border wall to purchase staples such as milk and flour. For the Hamas government, this represents a PR coup that may change the course of policy and events for the region’s key stakeholders.

Israel, whose government locked down the Gaza border after having incurred an endless series of rocket attacks, is now being blamed for the humanitarian plight of the Palestinians, notwithstanding the uncertainty as to how severe the Gazan population’s suffering has been under the sanctions. The autonomous Palestinian government’s moderate Fatah party has felt compelled to lift its self-imposed severance of relations with Hamas, as has Egypt, which had been boycotting the Hamas government since it strong-armed its way into power last summer.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak reluctantly received the leader of Hamas last Wednesday in Cairo, with a view to brokering a compromise with the moderate Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. Mubarak, who is normally anything but reticent in his dealings with radical Islamists, was forced to stand by helplessly in the face of the exodus of Palestinians from Gaza, since Mubarak’s compatriots would have taken a dim view of any use of violence against the individuals charging across the border.

And with good reason, since Egyptians now avail themselves of every opportunity to affirm their solidarity with their Palestinian brethren – one example being soccer star Mohammed Abu Tureika exhorting the crowd at a recent match against Sudan to show “solidarity with Gaza.” The Mubarak regime has even been forced to swallow manifestations of solidarity for Hamas from unexpected quarters such as the international book fair in Cairo.

The gaping hole in the Rafah wall has clearly demonstrated to the Israeli government that it can no longer afford to simply ignore Hamas. The policy of collective punishment for supporting fundamentalists has failed, notwithstanding last Wednesday’s Israeli Supreme Court ruling upholding restrictions on supplies of fuel and power to Gaza.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is leery of embarking on a large-scale military incursion into Gaza, particularly in view of a parliamentary committee’s final report released last week and attesting to serious errors in the handling of the 2006 Lebanon war. And in any case, Olmert is currently focused on trying to save his coalition and ensuring he isn’t forced out of office by the combined efforts of opponents in his own Kadima party and defense minister Ehud Barak from the Labor party. Hence, Olmert has little time to devote to Gaza.

According to Ahmed Yousef, chief advisor to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, knocking down the Rafah wall is probably the greatest success Hamas has scored since winning the parliamentary elections two years ago. Speaking from his Gaza City office, Yousef said he has received phone calls from around the world congratulating him on the action – including from self-appointed emissaries of European governments. “Hamas is once again a player to be reckoned with,” exulted Yousef.

However, the breach in the border also poses a risk for Hamas in the long run. There are increasing signs that al-Qaida cells are being established in Gaza, a form of competition that Hamas fears.

Hamas rejects any return to the 2005 treaty according to which the Israelis can seal off the crossing to the Egyptian city of Rafah at will. But international observers feel that such a move may be in the cards. All that has prevented this from happening thus far are the EU soldiers themselves. “The EU border police could withdraw,” says Yousef. Hamas has no intention of completely surrendering border control. One possible solution might be for President Abbas’s police to monitor the crossing, which must in any case remain open so that goods can be brought in. In Yousef’s view, Egypt should supply Gaza with diesel fuel and electricity, to nullify the effects of the Israeli sanctions.

According to Israeli diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity, the Israeli government would even be willing to give up control of the ten-kilometer stretch between Gaza and the Egyptian Sinai known as the Philadelphi Route, in the interest of completely ridding itself of any responsibility for Gaza. Long-term closure of all crossings into Israel would also reduce the risk of terrorist attacks and would bring to fruition the “disengagement” strategy proposed two and a half years ago by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the withdrawal of Jewish settlers from Gaza.

But Hamas wants to prevent this from happening at all costs. The Islamist leaders are hatching a plan that would continue to place the blame for Gaza’s plight squarely on Israel’s shoulders. Ahmed Yousef would like to pull off another Rafah-style exploit, but this time against the Palestinians’ archenemy, Israel. He is planning a mass march to the Erez border crossing in northern Gaza. “We’re going to send half a million people there, mainly women and children. Then we’ll see how the Israelis react,” he says. A devilish scheme, since the Israelis would not react as passively to the storming of their border as the Egyptians did. But Yousef is not impressed by such objections. “If the Israelis want our blood, I’m willing to sacrifice my children.”

Yousef has already asked international observers to participate in the “march on Erez.” Some have already agreed to come, and Yousef is happy about this. “This,” he says, “is the beginning of the third Intifada.”

Abuse of Israel's Humanitarian Policy for the Purpose of Terrorist Activity, Continued.......

2008-02-06T00:31:00.000-08:00

Israeli Security Agency (ISA) report
January 2008

Smuggling terrorists into Israeli territory using medical documentation
The demilitarized zone in the Gaza Strip, the security inspections and the interdiction activities of the security forces all create significant obstacles for terrorist organizations trying to smuggle terrorists into Israel.
In recent years there has been an increase in attempts by Palestinian terrorist organizations to overcome these obstacles by smuggling terrorists and terror organization members through the existing crossing points into Israel under the pretence of being patients seeking medical treatment. This is an abuse of Israel's humanitarian policy of rendering medical attention to all who need it.
These attempts have three main features:

Location and recruitment of Palestinians who require genuine medical treatment, some of whom are recruited after receiving an entry permit to Israel and have proved to terrorist organizations that they can enter the State of Israel legally. Others obtain the entry permits with the assistance of terrorist organizations.
Forgery of medical certificates or receiving genuine medical certificates by fraud or bribery. Terrorist organizations use their connections with members of the Palestinian establishment such as doctors and hospital administrative workers, who issue these certificates either under threat by terrorist organizations or in exchange for bribes. They use other methods as well.
Exploitation of visitation permits in Israel issued to relatives of patients hospitalized in Israeli hospitals.
The activity of the security forces to interdict these attempts has prevented many terrorist activities and severe terrorist attacks, including suicide bombings in Israel, deadly shooting at Israelis and placement of lethal explosive charges. In addition, security forces have prevented attempts to smuggle explosive experts from the Gaza Strip under medical pretenses to enhance the capabilities of terrorist organizations in Judea and Samaria and the establishment of new terrorist squads.
In recent years there has been an increase in attempts to smuggle female suicide bombers under the guise of medical reasons, on the assumption that they will be given entry permits more easily and will be able to enter Israel without arousing suspicion.

Prominent examples of using medical certificates for smuggling terrorists into Israel
May '07 – The arrest of two female suicide bombers at the Erez crossing who received an authentic entry permit into Israel using false medical information. They planned to carry out a double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv and in Netanya.
Fatma Zak, 39, a Gaza resident and pregnant mother of eight, together with her niece Ruda Haviv, 30, also a Gaza resident and mother of four, were apprehended on May 30, 2007 at the Erez crossing. Under questioning by the Israeli Security Agency, they confessed to planning to carry out a double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv and in Netanya under the guidance of the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad. They planned on executing these suicide bombings in a restaurant, a celebration hall or in the vicinity of large numbers of soldiers.
For the purpose of entering Israel, one of the Islamic Jihad members acquired genuine medical certificates based on false medical information allowing Haviv to have a medical examination in a hospital located in Ramallah, accompanied by Zak. Furthermore, the Islamic Jihad operative instructed the two to actually undergo the medical examination at the hospital to authenticate their cover story. After completion of the examination, the two were supposed to inform the Islamic Jihad operatives in the Gaza Strip of their whereabouts and they, in turn, promised them that in a short while an operative would bring them explosive belts and take them to the attack sites.
Some time before the two left for Israel they underwent training on how to use explosive belts and Zak even had training on the use of an AK-47 assault rifle. Zak and Haviv were briefed by their dispatchers on the clothing they should wear on the day of the attack so as not to arouse suspicion as they approached the targets.
September 2006 – The arrest of a member of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) at the Erez crossing who had received an entry permit into Israel on humanitarian grounds. He received the permit due to medical problems and planned to use it to establish terrorist cells in the West Bank.
Jaber Hasan Jaber Darabiye, a Gaza resident born in 1963, confessed under questioning by the Israeli Security Agency that he was recruited in 2006 to the Popular Resistance Committees and was supposed to establish terrorist cells in the West Bank for the purpose of committing terrorist attacks against the State of Israel.
To carry out this plan, the Popular Resistance Committees operatives took advantage of Darabiye's medical problems to acquire a genuine entry permit for medical treatment in Israel, which would allow him to go to the West Bank and carry out his mission.
To do so, Darabiye applied for documentation attesting to his medical condition so he could receive entry permits for medical treatment in Israel. He was apprehended on arrival at the Erez crossing on September 28, 2006.
June 2005 – A female suicide bomber who was supposed to enter Israel for medical examinations was arrested at the Erez crossing with an explosive belt strapped to her body.
On June 20, 2005 Wafa Samir Ibrahim Bass, a 21-year-old resident of Jebaliah, was apprehended at the Erez crossing with an explosive belt strapped to her body.
During the security inspection, Wafa aroused suspicion and responded by trying to activate the explosive belt she was wearing. Under questioning, she testified that she had been sent by the Fatach/El-Aqsa infrastructure in the northern Gaza Strip, using the medical treatment permit that was issued to her. Wafa was scheduled to go to the Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheba for a follow-up examination – she had been hospitalized there in the past (December '04 - January '05) for treatment of severe burns on her body caused by the explosion of a gas cylinder. She was instructed by the organization to carry out the suicide bombing in a crowded area inside an Israeli hospital.
March 2005 – The arrest of a Hamas member, resident of the Gaza Strip, who planned on carrying out a suicide bombing in Israel after his arrival in the West Bank under the pretence of being a potential kidney donor
Muhammed Subahi abd el-Me'ati Bahisi, 26, a HAMAS member and resident of Dir el Balah, testified during his interrogation that he left the Gaza Strip by virtue of a medical procedure that was initiated on behalf of his friend, an Israeli Arab to whom he was willing to donate a kidney. On the basis of Bahisi's request to check his compatibility for kidney donation as well as the fact that he was registered as a resident of the West Bank, the prohibition on his leaving the Gaza Strip was lifted. It was written that he could leave for medical tests using a one-day exit permit, accompanied by security or in an ambulance. On March 7, 2005 Bahisi left the Gaza Strip for Kalandia using a travel permit allowing him to enter the West Bank due to medical needs and based upon the fact that he is registered as a Kalandia resident in his identification card.
Under questioning, Bahisi testified that a day before his departure, when he received a permit to enter the West Bank and not only a single-entry permit for medical tests at the hospital, he notified Hamas operatives in Gaza about the permit which he had received.
The Hamas operatives instructed him to contact them approximately four months after his arrival in the West Bank and after he had arranged a place to stay without arousing suspicion. After that, they would send him an explosive belt to carry out a suicide bombing.
December 2004 – The arrest of a Hamas member who entered Israel through the Erez crossing using medical documents with the objective of carrying out a suicide bombing
On December 20, 2005, Hamad abed el-Karim Hamad Abu-Lihiya a resident of the Jebaliya refugee camp born in 1981, was apprehended in Baqa el Gharbiya. Abu-Lihiya was recruited as a terrorist by Hamas and smuggled into Israel for the sole purpose of perpetrating a suicide bombing in Israel.
Under questioning, Abu-Lihiya confessed that he was smuggled into Israel through the Erez crossing in August 2004, on the pretence of humanitarian grounds, as a "sleeper" terrorist on behalf of Hamas. He used documents alleging that he had cancer and required medical treatment in a hospital in the center of the country. The initial plan was to have another terrorist join him, and the two were supposed to receive weapons from collaborators inside Israel to be used for a terrorist attack.
December 2004 – The arrest of two terrorists of the El Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who planned on entering Israel through the 'khet' route after passing through Egypt under pretence of medical needs
In December 2004 Hasan Ahmed Ali Toum and Muhamed Diab Namer Jaarur were apprehended by the Israeli Security Agency. They are two terrorists from the Gaza Strip who belong to the El Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and who tried to enter Israel to carry out attacks on Israeli citizens.
Hasan Toum went to Egypt after presenting documents certifying that he was to undergo medical treatment there. Toum was apprehended on December 12 following a chase which developed after he entered the Negev area from Egypt. During his questioning it became evident that his objective in entering Israel was to murder an Israeli citizen and bury his body, thus enabling Fatah members in the Gaza Strip to conduct negotiations with Israel for the release of prisoners. Furthermore, it became evident that Toum was planning to damage the railroad tracks in the Natanya area using explosive charges that he was supposed to get from the Fatah infrastructure in Judea and Samaria. Approximately a week before Toum's arrest, Muhamed Jaarur was apprehended at the Rafah crossing while attempting to leave Egypt. Under questioning, Jaarur admitted that he was supposed to leave for Egypt to join forces with Hasan Toum and from there to sneak into Israel to carry out terrorist attacks.
September 2004 – The arrest of a female terrorist sent by the El Aqsa Martyrs Brigades infrastructure in the Gaza Strip to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel, after she required medical treatment in an Israeli hospital
Suhad Fuzi Namar Aslan, 35, single and a resident of the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, was burnt during her childhood from a gas cylinder explosion.
Under questioning, Aslan said that Uda Mahmud Uda Abu Samra, an El Aqsa Martyrs Brigades member, planned to send her for plastic surgery at Al-Muqaddas hospital in Jerusalem and to take advantage of her medical condition by placing an explosive belt under her bandages and dispatching her to carry out a suicide bombing in Jerusalem. Abu Samra instructed Aslan to present a medical document from Al-Muqaddas hospital which confirmed that she had an appointment for a medical examination at the hospital, so she could arrange an entry permit to Israel. Aslan acquired the requested document and, after her entry was denied, she obtained a written medical report in English regarding her medical condition. After being denied entry for the second time by the Erez DCO (District Coordination Office), Aslan obtained an appointment to the hospital. Roughly one month after their initial attempts to receive an entry permit to Israel based upon her medical condition, Aslan received the awaited document.
Aslan left the Gaza Strip in August to undergo surgery in the Al-Muqaddas hospital in Jerusalem. She was operated on and hospitalized till September 9. She then stayed in the hospital an additional five days as per Abu Samra's instructions. Aslan was to wait at the hospital until someone sent by Abu Samra would meet her and drive her to the site of the intended attack. Aslan was apprehended by security forces before she managed to carry out their plans.
August 2004 – The arrest of an El Aqsa Martyrs Brigade member who was about to leave for Egypt and from there enter Israel to carry out attacks. He used forged medical documents which alleged he suffered from testicular cancer, when in fact he was perfectly healthy.
Nabil Maher Halil Misri, a 22-year-old bachelor and resident of the Jebaliya refugee camp, confessed during questioning that, together with another El Aqsa Martyrs Brigades member, Salem abd el-Rahman Salem Tabt, he planned to enter Israel using forged medical documents, when in fact he was perfectly healthy, for the purpose of carrying out terrorist attacks.
Misri said that at first, Tabt planned that he would go through the Erez crossing using a request for medical treatment in Israel. Although in fact Misri was completely healthy, Tabt managed to acquire documents stating that he suffered from testicular cancer. Furthermore, Misri said that Tabt used doctors for this purpose, bribing or threatening them to issue the medical documents. A short time before arriving at the Erez crossing, Misri was supposed to take a pill that would make it appear to the people in the vicinity that he required urgent medical attention and in this way he would receive permission to go to Tel Hashomer hospital. Misri was supposed to study the details of his illness and its side effects so that he could authenticate the cover story and pass the inquiry by the security forces in case he was questioned at the Erez crossing. As Misri approached Tel Hashomer hospital, he was to inform Tabt and wait for some young men to pick him up in order to carry out the terrorist attack. Tabt told Misri he succeeded in smuggling a Galil SAR rifle from the Gaza Strip to Israel, and that he should disguise himself as a soldier with a short haircut and a typical Israeli appearance and attack a Tel Aviv clubhouse.
When questioned, Misri said that after Tabt tried several times to submit the request for Misri's treatment at Tel Hashomer hospital and was denied, they decided to try a different approach.
After the failure of their plan to transfer Misri into Israel through the Erez crossing using medical documents, Tabt decided to try to get him to Egypt using these same documents and from there to smuggle him back into Israel through the Sinai, to carry out a terrorist attack. To do so, Misri had to renew his medical documents. Hayeiri abd el-Karim Muhamed Sisi, who was apprehended with Misri, was also supposed to go to Egypt using medical treatment as a cover story. During his questioning, Misri elaborated that he was instructed to wait for Hayeiri after reaching the Egyptian side of the border, and that he would bring him to an apartment in Israel and dispatch him to carry out the terrorist attack.

Exploitation of medical facilities and vehicles for perpetration of terrorist attacks
In addition to using medical documents to smuggle terrorists into Israel, terrorist organizations attempt to use ambulances to transfer weapons and explosives into Israel. They do this under the assumption that ambulances and medical staff are not thoroughly examined at IDF checkpoints, thereby exploiting the instructions given to IDF soldiers regarding behavior towards the civilian population, especially the sick and children.
Terrorist organizations also use hospitals to cover terrorist activity and as shelter from the Israeli security forces, thereby jeopardizing the lives of the doctors and patients.
These terrorists who view hospitals as a "safe haven" due to Israel's humanitarian policy have also used them as bases of departure to and return from terrorist attacks.
Since the beginning of the confrontation with the Palestinians in September 2000 numerous examples have arisen of this terrorist group activity.
Prominent examples of medical facilities and vehicles used for terrorist attacks
February 2007 – The arrest of an Islamic Jihad terrorist in Bat Yam after attempting to carry out a suicide attack in Israel. He admitted that he prepared for the attack from within the Jenin hospital building.
Omar Ahmed abd el-Rahman Alrub, 25, an Islamic Jihad member from the village of Jilabun near Jenin, was apprehended in Bat Yam on February 20, 2007, in response to a specific warning of his intention to carry out a terrorist attack in Israel. In addition, an explosive bag he was carrying, which did not go off due to a technical malfunction, was seized.
During the investigation of the attempted attack, it became evident that Alrub was instructed by Islamic Jihad operatives inside the governmental hospital in Jenin, where he was recorded on a video camera reading his will aloud, shortly before his departure to carry out the terrorist attack.
Abu Alrub testified during ISA questioning that he joined the organization after meeting some wanted Islamic Jihad operatives in the Jenin hospital. This meeting came about by chance when he came to visit an ill relative. During this meeting he was even photographed with the weapon of one of the militants.
From this and other investigations, it became evident that the governmental hospital in Jenin is being used as a shelter by dozens of wanted Islamic Jihad and Tanzim terrorists from northern Samaria and that they store vast quantities of weapons and explosives there. The hospital is also used as a base for launching shooting attacks against IDF forces in the area and for the perpetration of suicide attacks.
April 2006 – The arrest of a senior Tanzim operative in Bethlehem who used the hospital to hide from the security forces
Arafat Abu Shaira, a senior Tanzim operative in Bethlehem, was wanted for his involvement in the operation of numerous terrorist squads as well as the direction of shooting attacks, placement of lethal explosive charges and the planning of suicide bombing attacks in Israel. Shaira used to hide inside the city's hospital under the assumption that the security forces would not look for him there.
March 2006 – The production of the explosive belt on the rooftop of Refidia hospital in Nablus which was used to kill four Israeli citizens in the Kdumim suicide car bombing
The suicide attack was carried out on March 30, 2006, under the guidance of Tanzim operatives in Nablus, by Ahmed Masharqa, 24, from El Burej near Hebron. He hitchhiked a ride near Kdumim and, shortly before the car reached its destination, blew himself up, killing himself and the other four people in the car.
August 2004 – The arrest of the head of the Military Tanzim in Bethlehem and another senior terrorist hiding out in the Bethlehem French hospital
Adnan Muhamed Hasan Abiyat, the head of the Military Tanzim in Bethlehem, and Ratab Ali Hasan Nebahan, a senior operative of the Tanzim in Bethlehem, were apprehended in Bethlehem French hospital after hiding there for a prolonged period of time. They took advantage of the fact that the place had a special status, thereby placing the patients in jeopardy. The two were assisted by the hospital's employees and also concealed firearms on the hospital premises, including two AK-47 assault rifles, three M-16 rifles, a MAG/M240 machine gun and a large amount of ammunition.
July 2004 – The arrest of a terrorist who was recruited by the Tanzim in Bethlehem and involved in a plan to smuggle an ambulance rigged with explosives into Jerusalem
Muhamed Taleb Salam Darawi, 20, a member of the Palestinian National Security forces from Shawara village near Bethlehem, was recruited to a Tanzim cell in March 2004. Under questioning by the ISA, Darawi testified that, during a shift at the headquarters in Bethlehem, he met Faiz Fuaz Ayid Ahras a member of the Palestinian National Security Services from Rafah who was stationed in Bethlehem. Ahras, who was also a Tanzim member, requested Darawi to help him smuggle a suicide bomber with an explosive belt into Jerusalem using an ambulance. The ambulance was supposed to use the route bypassing the roadblocks situated between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
Darawi spoke to two Tanzim operatives from the Bethlehem area, who were apprehended several months later, and told them that the ambulance, rigged with explosives, and a suicide bomber with an explosive belt were both standing by. Darawi requested the help of the two Tanzim operatives to smuggle the ambulance and the terrorist into Jerusalem. The plan failed when, after about a week, Darawi told Ahras that he had not found a way to smuggle the ambulance into Jerusalem.
November 2003 – The arrest of a chemist who supplied chemical compounds to the Hamas in Nablus using his hospital connections and ambulances to transport the substances
Rashad Tark Al Nimar, a chemistry PhD from Hawarah and the nephew of Faruq Qadumi, head of the political division of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) were apprehended on November 24, 2003. During his questioning Nimar confessed that he supplied chemical compounds to the military Hamas infrastructure in Nablus, taking advantage of his access to these substances through his work at hospitals in Nablus and Bethlehem. The chemicals were used in the production of explosive charges. He added that he used an ambulance to transport the chemical compounds to Hamas operatives. For example, he confessed to transporting two gallons of hydrogen peroxide to the ambulance company offices in Nablus, from which the operatives took the compounds. In a different case he promised an operative that he would obtain a chemical substance in Bethlehem and send it to him in Nablus in an ambulance.
August 2003 – The arrest of the chief of the Tanzim in Balata refugee camp and of a Hamas operative in Refidia hospital in Nablus, after they set up a Tanzim command post on the hospital roof.
Atman Ibrahim Asad Unis, born in 1977 and the chief of the Tanzim in Balata refugee camp, together with Wafad Bani Audah a Hamas operative, were apprehended on August 26, 2003 by Israeli security forces in Nablus after they set up a Tanzim command post on the hospital roof.
May 2003 – The arrest of a suicide terrorist affiliated with the PFLP, who attempted to slip into Qalqiliya from Nablus in an ambulance with the objective of carrying out a suicide attack in Israel.
Amar Naif Amar Haluan, born in 1985 in the village of Dejan near Nablus, was apprehended on May 13, 2003 in Qalqiliya on his way to carry out a suicide attack in Petah Tiqva. Under questioning, Haluan said that he attempted to leave Nablus and enter Qalqiliya with Zuhir Abed Jian Hamdan, a mother of eight. After they discovered that the roads were closed, they drove to the Alutani hospital and obtained an ambulance. They drove in the ambulance to the Qalqiliya roadblock with Zuhir wearing the explosive belt, but they were not allowed to pass because of IDF activity in the area. On the following day they met in the hospital with the intention of trying again to get through the roadblock using the ambulance. In the end, they drove to Qalqiliya using standard transportation and Haluan was arrested.
March 2002 – The arrest of a Tanzim member who worked as an ambulance driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent. Explosive belts and charges intended for Tanzim members in Ramallah were found in his ambulance .
Aslam Jibril, born in 1971 and a resident of Balata refugee camp near Nablus, worked as an ambulance driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent. He was apprehended on March 27, 2002 at an IDF checkpoint near Ramallah driving an ambulance containing an explosive belt and charges which were to have been transferred to Tanzim operatives in Ramallah. In addition, in the ambulance were children pretending to be patients. The explosive belt was discovered under a stretcher on which lay an ill child. The child's family was present with him in the ambulance during the incident.
October 2001 – The arrest of a Hamas member from Qalqiliya who worked as an ambulance driver and acted as a courier between Hamas headquarters in different cities
Nidal Nazal, a Hamas member from Qalqiliya and the brother of Nasser Nazal, one of the Hamas headquarter commanders in the city, was apprehended in October 2001. He exploited his relative freedom of movement between the Sharon area cities as an ambulance driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent to act as a courier between Hamas headquarters in different cities.

MC/PC.......

2007-12-30T05:47:00.000-08:00

Multi-cultural & Politically Correct

Beyond Politically Incorrect!

EXCUSES, EXCUSES, or...It's OK if Incas kill children, since it's just part of their culture

On Star Trek, Multicultural Respect For Cultural Differences and Other Peoples reaches such a point of absurdity that holograms and androids are accorded equal status and rights. Klingons, generally denounced as a warlike, violent people, are accomodated, too. One may not kill microscopic robots infecting a computer system because they are "self aware."

In our real world, there is no country or culture that cannot be defended (except our own, of course, which is evidently worthless and not worth preserving). When I first heard about the issue of female circumcision in Africa, I immediately used it as an example of a cultural difference that was indefensible. I was immediately laughed at and told that this could not possibly happen. Immediately thereafter, Africans began defending the ritualistic mutilation we call female circumcision as a cultural custom that the West and the United Nations had no right to criticize. What all this adds up to is a "blinders on" view of reality, in which our own culture is degraded routinely, and stigmatized with allegations of racism and oppression, while other cultures are celebrated. We have moved from the nation-building assimilation model of the Melting Pot, in which everyone was expected to become an American and adapt to the indigenous culture, to a tribal model known as Multiculturalism.

The concept of multiculturalism concerned respecting differences and recognizing the good in certain differences. What it has become in practice is a method of whitewashing all evils done by others and stigmatizing ourselves. People become hypersensitive about noting the flaws of others and refrain from any criticism. At the same time, they are unduly penitent as to our own flaws and disdainful as to our virtues. Inevitably, I would say, this concept of emphasizing and celebrating cultural differences has degenerated into cliquish groups filled with too much pride and too much self-esteem (another buzz word...) who assert their own superiority under the guise of multiculturalism. As the dominant culture, we become attacked by all concerned. Every flaw is magnified. Every virtue ignored. By all means, talk about American racism, but ignore the xenophobic Chinese. Talk about SLAVERY in AmeriKa, but ignore the long, ugly African tradition of slavery, dating back thousands of years. Talk about American brutality, but ignore Idi Amin and Third World butchery.

How far can it go? Pretty far. In the November, 1999 issue of National Geographic, page 42, the author writes of the Incas and the Spanish invasion. Naturally, the caucasian Spanish are evil and this also means, as the flip side of the coin, that the Incas have to be defended. After all, if two evil groups are fighting each other, do we care? So, contrasting the Evil Spanish with the Virtuous and Wonderful Incas, the author writes: "The Inca were not the brutal conquerors the Spaniards were. They used gifts as well as spears to demonstrate power to potential subjects...Once in charge, the Inca assimilated new peoples with remarkable effectiveness-allowing local leaders to keep their posts but taking their sons to Cuzco for training...honoring local gods and religious practices but commingling them with Inca beliefs and rituals." The only problem with this line of argument? Uh, the Incas liked to murder children. Hmmm. How do we whitewash that?

The author continues: "Child sacrifices were part of this approach. The Inca obtained children from throughout the empire and rewarded their families with positions or goods. Sacrifices were unifying events; children were often taken to Cuzco for celebrations before processions bore them on long journeys and up massive mountains to sacrifice sites." Oh. Child sacrifice isn't just a brutal, savage custom by murderers without conscience. It is just part of an "approach" of assimilating new peoples and incorporating Inca rituals unlike the "brutal Spaniards." It's a unifying event. I guess this is why the rebels in the American Civil War lost. They only made the argument that slavery was economically beneficial to the South; if they had said it was a "unifying event," then it would have been okay.

It is hard to read this nonsense without feeling that politically correct multiculturalism has gone off the deep end. The National Geographic piece is a good example of the whitewashing of other cultures. There is also the tactic of celebrating other cultures, even when they don't particularly deserve it. Every achievement by a minority becomes a Big Thing. Inevitably, this focuses the spotlight on the achievements of ethnic groups, and creates more and more barriers between unassimilated, hyphenated-Americans. Thus, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, March 12, 2000, page A3, the author reports on a new World War I memorial in Kansas City. Raad Cawthon, a black reporter, writes that WWI resulted in the death of 441 Kansas City residents. "One of them...was a woman; 18 were African Americans."

Can it get any more ridiculous? Of the total sum, neither women nor African Americans were major contributors of corpses. The article did not in any way concern racial issues. But spontaneously, this hypersensitive Black reporter felt obliged to start breaking down Americans into ethnic and gender categories, in a context in which it had no purpose whatsoever. In the New America, ethnicity is therefore the name of the game. The last thing you want to be is just a Euro-American. Find some minority group. Attach yourself to it. Proclaim your superiority-and the evil of the dominant culture. That's American today.

Of course, a few more decades of that, and America, to all practical purposes, won't exist any more as a nation.

--March 16, 2000

Little Green Footballs Has Been Inflitrated.......

2007-12-27T00:59:00.000-08:00

LittleGreenFootballs has been infiltrated
Bottehond 25 december 2007
For some weeks a controversy rages between the counter-jihadis of Litte Green Footballs and a number of Islam-critical topbloggers. Your reporter went into the battle zone of this controversy to discover a sinister plot, and with that theexplanation why this matter went completely out of control.
On first glance the issue seems to be whether or not some European parties are fascist or not, notably Vlaams Belang and Sverigedemokraterna. Both parties sent representatives to the anti-Islam conference in Brussels, where nearly all relevant players were present. This hurt LGF's feelings, who in the meanwhile was being tipped off by Swedish anti-fascists.
But further investigation proved there is more going on. The debate went completely out of control: old alliances and long lasting friendships might very well be permanently damaged. How did this come to be?
Because of the Brussels Conference LGF boss Charles Johnson received messages from Europe about the assumed neo-Nazi secret agenda of Vlaams Belang and Sverigedemokraterna. Johnson obviously was flabbergasted. Understandable, because, as many posters said: "If it can be proven that European anti-Islam organizations are allied to fascists, many Americans will step aside from supporting the Euro anti-Islam organizations. An old problem was reborn again. Who doesn't remember the messages collected by Blokwatch (and partly fabricated by them) about the roots of Flemish nationalism, who, as is commonly known, en masse choose to support the Nazis during WW2, in the hope of gaining independence after the war. Blokwatch also collected a lot of material about contacts between Vlaams Blok and questionable neo-Nazi organisations and persons. A similar file was collected about Sverigedemokraterna. The Swedes had some members in their ranks who maintained similar contacts with questionable clubs and persons.
In the following weeks many bloggers pointed Johnson to the fact that most of the "evidence" was razor thin, could be easily countered and was often manipulated. Then something important happened. Every reasonable man with sufficient understanding of politics will understand the vulnerable position of the international anti-Islam movement, and will know he has to work carefully and with restriction. Not so on LGF. Every critical remark about the "evidence" or suggestion of making things up were tarred as fascists or VB apologists. Even the most reasonable posters were scolded and suspected. Johnson was not capable of keeping the situation under control. Far from it: he was tempted by a herd of Lizards (which is how the posters on LGF call themselves) to estrange himself even more from such reputable bloggers as Fjordman, the folks of Gates of Vienna and Brussels Journal.
In the ongoing debate a Norwegian antifascist, Øyvind Strømmen, showed up. He wrote the book "Eurofascism". Several times Charles Johnson published parts of this book, all of them accusations aimed at Vlaams Belang and Sverigedemokraterna. Of course, all of this was simply more of the same. In my opinion, it was a major error of Charles Johnson to quote from this book. Not just because the material was mainly irrelevant; to the contrary. Such accusations should always be taken seriously. But because he refused to call for a time-out or discuss matters with the (at that time) friends and allied bloggers, Johnson hanged himself with this, or better phrased, this evidence. That evidence became quickly irrelevant; matters had gone too far already. Apparently Charles Johnson had released the genie out of the bottle and had no idea how to get it back again. He had few options but to keep walking the path he made himself.
Now the smoke has cleared, mainly because Johnson's opponents had the wisdom not to overreact we can make up the balance sheet. Those who followed the debates have seen the resentful tone that many Lizards used. LGF is known as very much pro-Israel, which really is a point to their benefit. It's no surprise many Shoah survivors or descendants from them are amongst the Lizards, and they turned themselves away from the Euro movement. Add to this the deep suspicion many Americans hold about Europe, and European history, and we have the explanations for this debate that went completely out of control. At least, that is what a superficial observer will think.
However, to quote Daniël Belinfante: "there is more going on". Let's have a closer look at this gentleman Mr. Øyvind Strømmen. Who is he? A small investigation showed that Mr. Strømmen is member of this club:
http://webhost.ua.ac.be/extremismanddemocracy/members/MembersList-S.htm
When we read this list carefully, we find the name and founder of Blokwatch, the "anti-fascist" blog that began the accusations of fascism against Vlaams Belang. This is Bart Spruyt. You will find his name on this list.
But there is more: Mr. Spruyt, a friend of Øyvind Strømmen, did much to internationalize the 'anti-fascist' jihad by founding disreputable anarchistic-like clubs such as AFA Netherlands. These chappies are internationally organized. Scandinavia abounds with these little progressive clubs. Perhaps you recall the attempted murder on four SIOE members in Copenhagen, recently? Yes, friends of our friends Spruyt and Strømmen. Those of you who would bear the stench can open a cesspit of extreme left Inquisition. And be surprised of the way these little hysteric clubs work intimately together, internationally.
What are the conclusions of this little investigation? The obvious, of course. LGF has been infiltrated by left wing fanatics, who respect nobody and nothing to achieve their goals. Those who tar everybody fascist who resists, for example, the Islamization of Europe. We are talking here about delusional fanatics who are so utterly convinced of being right (compare them the Baader Meinhof gang) they don't worry about one victim more or less. They actually became what they fought: merciless fascists. Their current champion: Øyvind Strømmen. The man shows off with his many 'investigations', but got his 'investigation' directly from Marc Spruyt. I do not doubt this applies to his 'investigations' about Sverigedemokraterna as well.
Please draw your own conclusions by reading his own forum. A very weak debater, drawing up smokescreen after smokescreen. All questions that might compromise him will remain unanswered. However, his strategy is clear enough: he wants to uncover the Islam-watchers as fascist fanatics, or at least as their helpers. Practically ALL Islam critics (Bat Ye 'Or, Oriana, Robert Spencer, Mark Steyn, Fjordman, just to mention a few) have been criticized by him. There can be no doubt at all: Øyvind Strømmen thinks Islamization is a hoax, and Islam critics are mentally ill or (his preference) fascists. And this is supposed to be the source of Johnson? An infamy!
Did Strømmen enter the debate alone? Of course not. I found so much hatred in the ongoing debate that my conclusion is that Charles Johnson not only has a very questionable advisor, but also that the Lizards have been infiltrated. Check it out for yourself. Observe the responses from the Lizards: foaming at the mouth as they blast their 'fascist' mantra to your postings. Amongst them are a lot of Europeans who will claim not to be left wing orientated. But also a bunch of Lizards who feed Charles Johnson with a deluge of evidence. Evidence collected for many years by the Strømmens and Spruyts of the world.
There is a little bit of good news to report as well. Charles Johnson has put some distance between himself and Strømmen. He repeatedly said that he doesn't agree with everything Strømmen said or stands for. Hardly possible, as Charles keeps the photo of Oriana prominently on his website. Hopefully he will realize one cannot have it both ways. I called on LGF for the relevant actors in this case to enter a debate. Face to face, for communication of such and important matter by mail will not do. The raid on LGF by Euro extremists makes it crystal clear that we cannot afford to. Only reason can heal the breech. Therefore I suggest that all involved pick up the job as soon as possible. That is to honestly what I as an irrelevant islam-watcher demand from all of them.
The only question remaining is: will Øyvind Strømmen hang Charles Johnson's scalp on his AFA belt, or will Charles Johnson see reason, and organize a mediation?

Bostom Essay Continued.......

2007-12-26T08:31:00.000-08:00

IN FULL:

(This essay is based upon materials from my forthcoming, “The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism”, 2008, on Prometheus Books.) December 13th marked the 804th anniversary of the death of Maimonides (d. 1203, in Cairo), renowned Talmudist, philosopher, astronomer, and physician. The biography of this “second Moses,” is often cited by those who would extol the purported Muslim ecumenism of the high Middle Ages—particularly in “Andalusia,” or Muslim Spain, invariably accompanied by a denunciation of the fanatical intolerance of Christian Western Europe, during the same era.

A particularly egregious example of this genre of loaded comparisons was made by Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate economist, in his recent book Identity and Violence. Sen has the temerity to proclaim, “…the Jewish Philosopher Maimonides was forced to emigrate from an intolerant Europe in the twelfth century, he found a tolerant refuge in the Arab world.”

Sen's ahistorical drivel aside, Maimonides (b. 1135, in Cordova) was but thirteen years old (in 1148) when Muslim Cordova fell into the hands of the particularly fanatical Berber Muslim Almohads, who invaded the Iberian peninsula from North Africa. Maimonides and all the dhimmi Jews in Cordova were compelled to choose between Islam and exile. Choosing the latter course, Maimonides and his family for twelve years subsequently led a nomadic life, wandering across Spain. By 1160 they crossed the Mediterranean, and settled at Fez, Morocco (also under Almohad control) where, unknown to the authorities, they hoped to pass as Muslims, while living as crypto-Jews. Maimonides' dual life, however, became increasingly dangerous as his reputation was steadily growing, and the authorities began to inquire into the religious disposition of this highly gifted young man. He was even charged by an informer with the crime of having relapsed (apostasized) from Islam, and, but for the intercession of the poet and theologian Abu al-'Arab al Mu'ishah, a Muslim friend, he would have suffered the fate of his colleague Judah ibn Shoshan, who had shortly before been executed on a similar charge. Given these precarious circumstances, Maimonides' family left Fez, embarking in 1165 to Acre, then to Jerusalem, and on to Fostat (Cairo), where they settled, living once again as dhimmis, albeit under more tolerant Fatimid rule.

The jihad depredations of the Almohads (1130-1232) wreaked enormous destruction on both the Jewish and Christian populations in Spain and North Africa. A contemporary Judeo-Arabic account by Solomon Cohen (which comports with Arab historian Ibn Baydhaq's sequence of events), from January 1148 C.E, described the Muslim Almohad conquests in North Africa, and Spain, as follows:

Abd al-Mumin...the leader of the Almohads after the death of Muhammad Ibn Tumart the Mahdi ...captured Tlemcen [in the Maghreb] and killed all those who were in it, including the Jews, except those who embraced Islam...[In Sijilmasa] One hundred and fifty persons were killed for clinging to their [Jewish] faith... All the cities in the Almoravid [dynastic rulers of North Africa and Spain prior to the Almohads] state were conquered by the Almohads. One hundred thousand persons were killed in Fez on that occasion, and 120,000 in Marrakesh. The Jews in all [Maghreb] localities [conquered]...groaned under the heavy yoke of the Almohads; many had been killed, many others converted; none were able to appear in public as Jews...Large areas between Seville and Tortosa [in Spain] had likewise fallen into Almohad hands.

This devastation-massacre, captivity, and forced conversion-was described by the Jewish chronicler Abraham Ibn Daud, and the poet Abraham Ibn Ezra. Suspicious of the sincerity of the Jewish converts to Islam, Muslim "inquisitors", i.e., antedating their Christian Spanish counterparts by three centuries, removed the children from such families, placing them in the care of Muslim educators. When Sijilmasa [an oasis town southwest of Fez] was conquered by the Almohads in 1146, the Jews were given the option of conversion or death. While 150 Jews chose martyrdom, others converted to Islam, including the dayyan [rabbi, or assistant rabbi] Joseph b. Amram (who later reverted to Judaism). The town of Dar'a suffered a similar fate. Abraham Ibn Ezra's moving elegy Ahah Yarad Al Sefarad describes the Almohad destruction of both Spanish (Seville, Cordova, Jaen, Almeria) and North African Jewish communities, including Sijilmasa and Dar'a (along with others in Marrakesh, Fez, Tlemcen, Ceuta, and Meknes).

Ibn Aqnin (d. 1220), a renowned philosopher and commentator, who was born in Barcelona in 1150, fled the Almohad persecutions with his family, also escaping to Fez. Living there as a crypto-Jew, he met Maimonides and recorded his own poignant writings about the sufferings of the Jews under Almohad rule. Ibn Aqnin wrote during the reign of Abu Yusuf al-Mansur (r. 1184-1199), four decades after the onset of the Almohad persecutions in 1140. Thus the Jews forcibly converted to Islam were already third generation Muslims. Despite this, al-Mansur continued to impose restrictions upon them, which Ibn Aqnin chronicles. From his Tibb al-nufus (Therapy of the Soul), Ibn Aqnin, laments:

Our hearts are disquieted and our souls are affrighted at every moment that passes, for we have no security or stability...Past persecutions and former decrees were directed against those who remained faithful to the Law of Israel and kept them tenaciously so that they would even die for the sake of Heaven. In the event that they submitted to their demands, [our enemies] would extol and honor them. .. But in the present persecutions, on the contrary, however much we appear to obey their instructions to embrace their religion and forsake our own, they burden our yoke and render our travail more arduous. . . .Behold the hardships of the apostates of our land who completely abandoned the faith and changed their attire on account of these persecutions. But their conversion has been of no avail to them whatsoever, for they are subjected to the same vexations as those who have remained faithful to their creed. Indeed, even the conversion of their fathers or grandfathers...has been of no advantage to them.

If we were to consider the persecutions that have befallen us in recent years, we would not find anything comparable recorded by our ancestors in their annals. We are made the object of inquisitions; great and small testify against us and judgments are pronounced, the least of which render lawful the spilling of our blood, the confiscation of our property, and the dishonor of our wives. ... the [Muslim] custodians are able to dispose of our young children and their belongings as they see fit. If they were given to an individual who feared Allah, then he would endeavor to educate the children in his religion, for one of their principles is that all children are originally born as Muslims and only their parents bring them up as Jews, Christians, or Magians. Thus, if this individual educates them in [what they state is] their original religion [i.e., Islam] and does not leave the children with those [i.e., the Jews] that will abduct them therefrom, he will obtain a considerable reward from Allah...
... We were prohibited to practice commerce, which is our livelihood, for there is no life without the food to sustain our bodies and clothes to protect them from the heat and cold. The latter can only be obtained through trade for this is their source and cause, without which its effect, namely our existence, would disappear. In so doing their design was to weaken our strong and annihilate our weak...
... Then they imposed upon us distinctive
garments...As for the decree enforcing the wearing of long sleeves, its purpose was to make us resemble the inferior state of women, who are without strength. They were intended by their length to make us unsightly, whereas their color was to make us loathsome... The purpose of these distinctive garments is to differentiate us from among them so that we should be recognized in our dealings with them without any doubt, in order that they might treat us with disparagement and humiliation. . . Moreover it allows our blood to be spilled with impunity. For whenever we travel on the wayside from town to town, we are waylaid by robbers and brigands and are murdered secretly at night or killed in
broad daylight...
Now, the purpose of the persecution of Ishmael, whether they require us to renounce our religion in public or in private is only to annihilate the faith of Israel and consequently one is bound to accept death rather than commit the slightest sin . . . as did the martyrs of Fez, Sijilmasa, and Dar'a.

Maimonides' The Epistle to the Jews of Yemen was written in about 1172 in reply to inquiries by Jacob ben Netan'el al-Fayyūmi, who headed the Jewish community in Yemen. At that time, the Jews of Yemen were experiencing a crisis-hardly unfamiliar to Maimonides-as they were being forced to convert to Islam, a campaign launched in about 1165 by 'Abd-al-Nabī ibn Mahdi. Maimonides provided the Yemenite Jewish communal leader with guidance, and what encouragement he could muster. The Epistle to the Jews of Yemen provides an unflinchingly honest view of what Maimonides thought of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, or "the Madman" as he calls him, and about Islam generally. Maimonides writes:

You write that the rebel leader in Yemen decreed compulsory apostasy for the Jews by forcing the Jewish inhabitants of all the places he had subdued to desert the Jewish religion just as the Berbers had compelled them to do in Maghreb [i.e.Islamic West]. Verily, this news has broken our backs and has astounded and dumbfounded the whole of our community. And rightly so. For these are evil tidings, "and whosoever heareth of them, both his ears tingle (I Samuel 3:11)." Indeed our hearts are weakened, our minds are confused, and the powers of the body wasted because of the dire misfortunes which brought religious persecutions upon us from the two ends of the world, the East and the West, "so that the enemies were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side." (Joshua 8:22).

Maimonides makes clear that the unrelenting persecutions of the Jews by the Muslims is tantamount to forced conversion:

...the continuous persecutions will cause many to drift away from our faith, to have misgivings, or to go astray, because they witnessed our feebleness, and noted the triumph of our adversaries and their dominion over us...

He then notes: "After him arose the Madman who emulated his precursor since he paved the way for him. But he added the further objective of procuring rule and submission, and he invented his well known religion." Medieval Jewish writers often referred to Muhammad as ha-meshugga, Madman-the Hebrew term, as historian Norman Stillman has observed wryly, being "pregnant with connotations."

Georges Vajda's magisterial 1937 essay on the anti-Jewish motifs in the hadith, includes a fascinating discussion from Maimonides Teshuvot Responsa on the question of whether Jews should attempt to teach the Torah to Muslims, versus Christians. Although, in principle the response is negative, i.e., non-Jews were proscribed from formal study of the Torah per se, Maimonides makes this striking distinction between Christians and Muslims, regarding the teaching of the commandments and their explanations, because of the unique threat posed by Muslims due to their doctrinal intolerance:

...it is permitted to teach the commandments and the explanations according to [rabbinic] law to the Christians, but it is prohibited to do likewise for the Muslims. You know, in effect, that according to their belief this Torah is not from heaven and if you teach them something, they will find it contrary to their tradition, because their practices are confused and their opinions bizarre mippnei she-ba'uu la-hem debariim be-ma`asiim [because a mish-mash of various practices and strange, inapplicable statements were received by them.] What [one teaches them] will not convince them of the falseness of their opinions, but they will interpret it according to their erroneous principles and they will oppress us. [F]or this reason...they hate all [non-Muslims] who live among them. It would then just be a stumbling block for the Israelites who, because of their sins, are in captivity among them. On the contrary, the uncircumcised [Christians] admit that the text of the Torah, such as we have it, is intact. They interpret it only in an erroneous way and use it for purposes of the allegorical exegesis that is proper to them Ve-yirmezuu bah ha-remaziim hay-yedu`iim la-hem [They would exchange secret signs known only to them.] If one informs them about the correct interpretation, there is hope that they will return from their error, and even if they do not, there is not stumbling block for Israel, for they do not find in their religious law any contradiction with ours.

Returning to The Epistle to the Jews of Yemen, Maimonides highlights one of the presumptive reasons for Muslim hatred of Jews:

Inasmuch as the Muslims could not find a single proof in the entire Bible nor a reference or possible allusion to their prophet which they could utilize, they were compelled to accuse us saying, "You have altered the text of the Torah, and expunged every trace of the name of Mohammed therefrom." They could find nothing stronger than this ignominious argument.

Elaborating on the depth of Muslim hatred for the Jews, Maimonides makes a further profound observation regarding the Jewish predilection for denial, a feature that he insists will hasten their destruction:

Remember, my co-religionists, that on account of the vast number of our sins, God has hurled us in the midst of this people, the Arabs, who have persecuted us severely, and passed baneful and discriminatory legislation against us, as Scripture has forewarned us, 'Our enemies themselves shall judge us' (Deuteronomy 32:31). Never did a nation molest, degrade, debase and hate us as much as they .... Although we were dishonored by them beyond human endurance, and had to put with their fabrications, yet we behaved like him who is depicted by the inspired writer, "But I am as a deaf man, I hear not, and I am as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth." (Psalms 38:14). Similarly our sages instructed us to bear the prevarications and preposterousness of Ishmael in silence. They found a cryptic allusion for this attitude in the names of his sons "Mishma, Dumah, and Massa" (Genesis 25:14), which was interpreted to mean, "Listen, be silent, and endure." (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, ad locum). We have acquiesced, both old and young, to inure ourselves to humiliation, as Isaiah instructed us "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair." (50:6). All this notwithstanding, we do not escape this continued maltreatment which well nigh crushes us. No matter how much we suffer and elect to remain at peace with them, they stir up strife and sedition, as David predicted, "I am all peace, but when I speak, they are for war." (Psalms 120:7). If, therefore, we start trouble and claim power from them absurdly and preposterously we certainly give ourselves up to destruction."

Just over 800 years later, ignoring Maimonides sadly timeless observation about such feckless appeasement of Islamic supremacism-as the Israeli, most notably, and US governments are so wont to do-is truly "Meshugga," with all the modern and ancient connotations of the expression.